These “back-to-school” photos tell the saddest story. Emily Apicella would have turned nine during this school year, but in December she died after a three-year battle with Wilms’ tumour, a cancer of the kidney.
Over the years, Emily underwent surgery, had chemotherapy and took part in potentially lifesaving trials. But the little girl from Norfolk in the UK kept relapsing.
“In July to August 2015 we came off the trial as it wasn’t working and came home to make memories of our time left. There were no treatments left to try,” Emily’s grief-stricken mum, Julie, told Huffington Post UK.
Now, Apicella is attempting to raise awareness of childhood cancer by encouraging as many people as possible to add a gold ribbon to their profile picture.
Here’s the emotional captioning her moving post:
“Imagine if your school photo this year is the LAST you will ever be able to take and will just be a memory to remember. I have asked my friends and family to change their profile pics to go gold and many have done this and I thank you, those who haven’t please consider changing yours , it takes seconds and you don’t have to donate any money or your spleen in doing so.
“Nearly everyone on my list has children or family members and this could be your reality in the future 1 in 285 children will get a cancer diagnosis. Raising awareness of symptoms and that childhood cancer is not rare is the first hurdle to jump.
“Eventually the gold ribbon of childhood cancer will be as well known as the pink ribbon for breast cancer but it takes people to actually post on social media etc for this to happen. And if you think please just give it a rest about cancer the delete friend button is near my name please press http://twibbon.com/support/go-gold-project/facebook.
