A four-year-old girl has received a terrifying diagnosis after her mood change and increasing arguments was noted at pre-school – prompting a search for answers as to the cause.
Katie Cullen became concerned when symptoms arose gradually in her daughter Ayla throughout 2025, but found they were always easily explained away as common childhood illnesses or growing pains.
The young child would occasionally complain of stomach pain, struggled with constipation, came up in ‘hives’, and often felt tired – meanwhile at pre-school, her teachers noted she was arguing with friends, which was unusual.
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It wasn’t until the start of this year that parents Katie, 30, and David, 31, found a large lump in her abdomen while getting her ready for bed one evening.
They were told it was constipation once more – but her mum wasn’t convinced.
“Something didn’t sit right with me, but I never imagined it could be cancer,” Katie, from Sydney, Australia, told Need To Know.
“We’d taken her to an urgent care clinic that night after finding the lump, but were told it was likely constipation and sent home.
“I booked a GP appointment for the following morning and we were immediately referred to the emergency department.
“Within hours, scans revealed an 11cm tumour on her kidney.
“Nothing prepares you for hearing the words ‘your daughter has a tumour’.
“One moment I thought I was taking my little girl to hospital for constipation, and the next I was being told she had a tumour the size of a grapefruit.
“I was terrified, but I was also in denial.
“Cancer had always been something I feared, and I couldn’t believe it was happening to our family.
“My mind immediately went to whether she would survive, how much she would suffer, and how I was going to explain any of this to a four-year-old who just wanted to go home and play.
“It felt like our entire world stopped.”
Little Ayla was a “happy and active” child, enjoying dancing, singing and playing with her brother Elijah, six.
Katie said: “Ayla has always been a social butterfly, full of confidence and personality.
“Towards the end of 2025, we started to notice her personality change, and looking back, I believe the tumour was making her increasingly uncomfortable.
“She became noticeably more irritable and easily frustrated, which was very unlike her.
“At preschool she started arguing with other children over things that normally wouldn’t have bothered her.
“At home she was quicker to become upset, had less patience, and wasn’t her usual happy, carefree self.”
As well as mood, Ayla also started to sleep in later on mornings and opt not to play, would occasionally come out in hives and rashes, and had red under her eyes.
Katie said: “We saw doctors and specialists multiple times throughout the year as different symptoms appeared.
“I was always trying to find an explanation, but because each symptom seemed relatively common on its own, cancer wasn’t suspected.
“The two blood tests she had in 2025 also came back completely normal.”
At the start of 2025, Ayla had a UTI that was difficult to clear, and an abdominal ultrasound similarly found nothing abnormal.
Katie said: “As the months went on, she continued to have intermittent symptoms including abdominal pain, fatigue and bloating.
“We saw our GP, had multiple blood tests, saw specialists and continued investigating her symptoms.
“Everything continued to come back reassuring.”
But that all changed when she found the lump in January 2026, leading to the diagnosis of Wilms tumour – kidney cancer.
Little Ayla began chemotherapy almost immediately, undergoing four rounds, which reduced the tumour by around 70%.
She later underwent surgery to remove her kidney and the tumour.
During surgery, it was discovered that the tumour had ruptured before the operation, with local spread to surrounding tissues including her bowel, pancreas and diaphragm – moving her to stage three, and requiring more intensive treatment.
Since then, Ayla has completed 10 days of whole abdominal radiation, as well as an additional six days of targeted radiation to the tumour bed, and is currently receiving a 27-week chemotherapy protocol with vincristine and actinomycin D.
Throughout treatment she has needed a central line, a feeding tube, blood transfusions, platelet transfusions and multiple hospital admissions for infections and low blood counts.
Katie said: “She has been incredibly brave.
“There have been days she’s too exhausted to play, days she doesn’t want to eat, and days where she’s lost feeling and strength in her hands and feet because of chemotherapy-induced neuropathy.
“She’s lost her hair, spent weeks in hospital and endured more needles and procedures than most adults ever experience.
“Despite everything, she still finds reasons to smile, sing and make people laugh.
“She’s built such a special relationship with the nurses and staff in the oncology unit.
“Her resilience amazes me every single day.
“We remain hopeful.
“But one of the biggest things I’ve learnt is that childhood cancer doesn’t always look the way people expect.
“I hope that by sharing her story, we can help raise awareness that childhood cancer symptoms are often vague and can easily be mistaken for common illnesses, while also encouraging parents to trust their instincts if they feel something isn’t right.
“If our story encourages even one parent to seek a second opinion, trust their gut, or helps raise awareness for childhood cancer, then sharing it is worth it.”
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