Ten-year-old Hannah calls the tumour Donald J. Lump, after United States president-elect Donald J. Trump.
The Fairfield School pupil has also come up with the idea to call the primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma that took hold shortly before Christmas "a cold", so people wouldn’t make such a fuss. And when her mother and father, Lea and Grant Jones, have a bad day she tells them everything will be fine.
Yesterday, she was proudly showing off the beads she was given for each treatment she has received, as the Green Island community gathered in an ongoing campaign to help her parents deal with the financial impact of her illness.
Mrs Jones is a former Otago Daily Times reporter and now the Otago Polytechnic journalism lecturer and Mr Jones works in IT for Southern Hospitality. He previously has worked for Allied Press.Mrs Jones said her daughter became ill about seven weeks ago.
Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma usually affected women in their 20s and 30s, and was rare even among that group.
Something was "not right" with Hannah, who had a puffy face and was short of breath.
Her blood tests came back clear, but Mrs Jones was concerned enough to take her to the Dunedin Hospital emergency department and sit there for four and a-half hours to get an answer.
The hospital chest X-ray found the tumour, and the next day Hannah was on a flight to the Children’s Haematology Oncology Centre in Christchurch for treatment.
Mrs Jones said that involved six rounds of chemotherapy, with Hannah, having completed the second, being well enough to return to Dunedin.
She said Hannah’s response to the illness had been "amazing".
The Donald J. Lump joke had evolved to a point where the goal of the treatment was "all about getting rid of the Donald".
"Kids, they’re just so resilient."
Hannah had forbidden her parents to shave their heads in support, wondering why her mother would want to make herself look "ugly".
Mrs Jones said doctors told her the cancer was treatable, and, despite having a mouth full of ulcers after chemotherapy, Hannah was "remarkably well".
Yesterday, at Moyle’s Fresh Choice supermarket in Green Island, community members were running a barbecue fundraiser for the family.
Julie Moyle said the Jones family was involved in the community through kindergarten, school and rugby club.
"If you need something done they will do it."
When Mrs Moyle heard about the diagnosis she decided to help. The supermarket had been raising money through donations at check-outs since mid-December, and yesterday ran a "pyjama party" and barbecue.
The day raised $1325. Mrs Jones said it was hard to find words to describe how she felt about the community’s response.
"Humbled doesn’t even explain how we feel."
She said it was hard to take in people’s generosity.
"I cry every time someone does something nice."
Hannah, who had beads she got for "tough times" during treatment, also struggled to find words to describe how she felt.
"I think it’s pretty cool.
"It’s pretty amazing; I’m getting so much stuff."
