8-year-old girl given ‘one in a million’ breast cancer diagnosis

Chrissy Turner is only in Grade 3 and she is now fighting a rare form of breast cancer.

Chrissy, from Utah, was the one who found the lump in her chest in October. She told her parents, and it later was diagnosed as secretory breast carcinoma.

Her family said they are ready to fight this “one in a million” cancer.  “We are going to stand by her and beat this,” her mother, Annette Turner, told NBC’S Today. “There are days you cry and think, what do I do? But you have to keep waking up and support each other.”

According to the Annals of Oncology, secretory breast carcinoma (SBC) is also known as juvenile carcinoma. It is extremely rare. SBC is considered to have a favourable prognosis in children and adolescents but is more aggressive in older patients.

Chrissy will now undergo a mastectomy.

“It is very treatable,” Chrissy’s physician Dr. Brian Bucher of Primary Children’s Hospital told ABC News. “Chrissy will need to undergo a simple mastectomy…to remove all the remaining breast tissue to prevent this cancer from coming back.”

Sadly, the family has battled cancer before. Prior to this, Annette Turner, Chrissy’s mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her father, Troy, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

A GoFundMe page set up by a close family friend reads, “as a decorated veteran of foreign war while serving in Operation Desert Storm, never in their lives together, did Troy and his wife Annette expect that they would fight tougher battles, but they were wrong. ”

The Turner family said they have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and strangers.

“You just can’t thank someone enough for that gift,” said Annette.

At Chrissy’s urging, she and her family have volunteered to be part of a study.

“My husband and I also elected to do with her to see if we can help others who might come into this horror someday. Chrissy has always put others first. She’s just a giver,” Annette said.