Days after rash appeared, Allegra had to have organ removed

When Allegra Davidson came down with a persistent fever and full-body rash at 14 months old, mum Samantha had to fight with hospital staff just to get a blood test done.
Had doctors refused, Allegra might’ve been sent home with nothing but a few Nurofen as the cancer hidden inside her continued to spread.
Samantha wasn’t going to let that happen.
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A registered nurse, she noticed Allegra seemed unwell five days before their hospital visit on September 2, 2022, when she came down with a fever.
Over the next few days, Allegra’s fever persisted and her temperature spiked to over 40 degrees. She started refusing her evening bottle, then broke out in a “significant” rash.
“I knew something wasn’t quite right,” Samantha tells 9honey.
Their usual GP was unavailable so she took Allegra straight to the emergency department at Mount Druitt Hospital, but doctors didn’t seem concerned.
“They just figured it was a viral illness. They just wanted to do the usual Panadol, Neurofen, to bring down the fever,” Samantha says.
“But I’d already done that at home for a few days prior.”
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When she asked hospital staff to run blood tests on Allegra they initially agreed, then said it wouldn’t be necessary.
“They said, ‘If she settles down with Panadol and Nurofen, then she can go home’. I just refused,” Samantha says.
It was a battle, but eventually she convinced doctors to run the tests. 
It was a good thing they did, because when the results came back a few hours later Allegra’s inflammatory markers were far too high to be normal.
She was admitted to hospital then and there.
The next three days passed in a blur of tests and scans before Samantha got the terrifying truth she’d been fighting for: a large mass had been found on Allegra’s left kidney.
Doctors didn’t yet know what it was.
“It felt easier, in a sense, to expect the worst and hope that it’s definitely not that,” Samantha thought at the time.
But nothing could prepare her for the devastating news she received on September 5, when Allegra was diagnosed with cancer – specifically nephroblastoma, also called Wilms tumour.
She couldn’t understand how something so sinister had been hiding inside her beautiful, seemingly healthy baby girl.
“We had all this testing done when I was pregnant with her and everything came back fine. All her checkups leading up to the diagnosis had been fine,” Samantha says. 
“How had anything been missed?”
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A few days later, Allegra was rolled away for what was supposed to be a four-hour operation to remove the tumour and her kidney. It ended up taking almost 10 hours.
The cancer was more complex than doctors expected and had spread to her lymph nodes, making the surgery far more complicated.
“She came out with all these cords and scars on her, and she had an epidural in for the pain. No parent wants to see their child in that state ever,” Samantha says.
The cancer was Stage 3 and Allegra would have to start radiation and chemotherapy soon after her surgery, which was terribly confronting for her parents to hear.
Samantha feared how cancer treatment would affect her baby girl, both in the present and further down the line.
“Is this going to affect fertility? By doing this, are we taking away her opportunity of potentially being a mother?” she says.
Ultimately, Allegra’s parents were willing to do whatever it took to save their daughter.
Barely a year old, Allegra underwent six days of radiation therapy under a sedative, followed by three different types of chemotherapy in the months that followed.
The harsh treatments caused hair loss, rashes and neuropathy, as well as nausea and significant weight loss, which led to Allegra needing a nasogastric feeding tube.
Though she was too young to understand the severity of her diagnosis, Allegra understood that she was sick and in pain and it broke her parents’ hearts to see.
Like so many parents of sick children, their mental health took a brutal hit but they held it together for Allegra.
She rang the hospital bell signalling the end of her treatment in 2023 and was declared cancer-free, but Samantha admits life still hasn’t returned to normal for her.
It may never feel normal again, after all they’ve been through.
“You live in a constant state of fight or flight,” she says of the lingering mental effects of watching a child go through cancer treatment.
“There are periods of time where it is a little bit calmer, but there’s definitely that anxiety. I don’t think it’ll go away anytime soon.”
Now three, Allegra has started preschool and is enjoying a “normal” childhood; it’s a milestone she may never have reached if Samantha hadn’t pushed for those blood tests back in 2022.
Samantha is still hypervigilant about her daughter’s health and she can’t change what her family has been through, but she can work towards a future where no other child has to suffer like Allegra did.
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Today, the family works with the Children’s Cancer Institute to raise awareness and funds for vital research towards better childhood cancer treatment options and bringing childhood cancer deaths down to zero.
“No child deserves to go through anything like this.”
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Allegra’s family are sharing their story in support of The Children’s Cancer Institute. Learn more and donate here.
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