Sister writes song to help six-year-old through cancer treatment

Bella Gabbitas wrote Warrior after her sister Ariana, age six, was diagnosed with leukaemia during lockdown.

Life for the Mayfield-based family was turned upside down after Ariana showed early signs of leukaemia during a family day out.

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But Ariana, Bella, middle sister Lyra and their parents Stephanie and Chris pulled together, inspiring Bella to write a song about her sisters strength throughout treatment.

The family were contemplating a move to the United States before Ariana began to feel unwell during a day out to Bedgebury Forest last autumn.

Ariana, who had never missed a day at school through illness, began to develop a low-grade temperature and severe night sweats.

“She kept saying she was cold and tired and although she is normally a daredevil, she was climbing with her sisters but seemed cautious and scared,” Stephanie said.

After a trip to A&E, Chris expected to be taking his daughter home with antibiotics.

But then came a call from a paediatrician who told them: “We’ve got a suspected case of leukaemia”.

The diagnosis was confirmed the next day as B cell lymphoblastic leukaemia. Ariana immediately started treatment at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

The Gabbitas family

“We collapsed for a little bit and then we said ‘right – we have a job to do’. We cancelled our work and our lives changed in four days,” Stephanie said.

“We knew nothing about cancer, we didn’t know any of the drugs – it was like learning a foreign language.”

By the end of the week, Stephanie was reading academic journals, while Bella did a school research project abut childhood leukaemia, including interviewing oncology nurses.

It was after this that she wrote the song for Ariana, with a little help from a friend and her dad.

“It was her own therapy,” said Stephanie. “She expressed the way she felt in a unique song for Ariana.”

Bella (left), Ariana and Lyra

As Ariana recovers from the intensive phase of her treatment, she often sits at the piano alongside Bella and listens to her play the song.

Ariana plays a leading role in September’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month campaign, which supports research to help more children and young people survive cancer with a good quality of life.

The family is backing Cancer Research UK Children and Young People, in partnership with TK Maxx.

Stephanie, who runs a babyballet school, said: “Before, we had three really happy girls who loved their school and we were just a busy family, trying to juggle work and family during lockdown.

“Ariana accepted her cancer treatment as her new reality. She is a very outgoing child and I felt I had the energy and focus to be open about her illness, so we decided to be her voice.”

In the South East, around 240 children are diagnosed with cancer every year.

Last year, Cancer Research UK spent £13 million on research into cancers that affect 0 to 24-year-olds - making the charity one of the biggest funders of research into children’s and young people’s cancer in the UK.

Lynn Daly, Cancer Research UK spokesperson for the South East, said: “Cancer is different in children and young people. We want to help more young cancer patients, like Ariana, survive cancer with a good quality of life.

“We’re developing a strong, long-lasting community of children’s and young people’s cancer researchers in the UK. We are enormously grateful Ariana and her family for their support.”