Bulletin Board 10 Year Picture Challenge
The 10-year-challenge is spreading around Facebook — with loads of people showing just how much they've changed in the last decade.
But few pictures have had as inspirational a story behind them as these of Hollie Evans.
Hollie is now 11. But when she was 14 months old, her parents were devastated to be told their little girl had leukaemia.
Now given the all-clear, Hollie's mum, Hayley Evans, from Bridgend, said she was "very proud" to share the picture to show how far her daughter has come.
Hayley, 31, said Hollie started to show signs that something might have been wrong when she was three months old.
"She had a rash, she was bruising, she was bleeding," she said.
"But the doctors thought it was down to Hollie having Down's Syndrome. They knew 10 days after me having her that she had Down's Syndrome.
"From when she was three months, my husband and I took her back and forth to the hospital but they kept saying that it was because she had Down's Syndrome that she was going to have this rash."
But then, having opted to change surgeries, a different doctor told Hollie's parents he didn't like what he was seeing.
"He then checked her record and found out she had never had a blood test done," Hayley said.
The tests confirmed Hollie had leukaemia.
Hayley said they had worried about it for months and were devastated when they received the news.
She said: "We would have lost her through the night - if she did bleed, we would have lost her. I just remember going out from behind the hospital and crying and screaming to my mum on the phone."
Hollie was then meant to undergo six months of intense chemotherapy but because she took to it "really well" she ended up having it for four months.
Hayley said there was one week when she was "really poorly" and had to spend a week locked in isolation.
But luckily she managed to fight the cancer and is still smiling 10 years later.
"She had the all clear," Hayley said.
"But there is still a chance it could come back. There is a very unlikely risk her leukaemia will return but at the last appointment we were told she is at a higher risk of other cancer. We just take each day as it comes now."
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Since fighting the illness Hollie has done lots of things to raise money for charity and has raised thousands of pounds.
In 2014, she cut off 18 inches of her hair in aid of the Little Princess Trust - a charity that makes wigs for children with cancer. She also cut off more of her hair in 2017 for the charity.
Hollie also took part in the Wouldn't Change A Thing campaign last year to help tackle the negative perception of Down's Syndrome.
She even appeared on the This Morning sofa with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield last year.
Wales footballer John Hartson also posted an inspirational 10-year challenge this week, showing how he had recovered from his cancer battle. And this is what Wales' rugby players' 10-year challenge pictures look like.
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Discussing why she posted the 10-year challenge picture, Hayley said: "The picture shows just how strong she is - it shows that smile. You don't know what is happening behind somebody's smile.
"Behind the rash, behind the bleeding, she was always smiling and you wouldn't know what she was going through. I'm very proud of her."
Hayley added that every year the family collect Easter Eggs and deliver them to poorly children at Cardiff Hospital, Ty Hafan Hospice and Y Bont Nursery in Bridgend.
It's become a tradition and this year they are hoping to get a few more extra so they can deliver them to the new Ronald McDonald House in Cardiff too.
Bulletin Board 10 Year Picture Challenge
Source: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/10-year-challenge-picture-absolute-15696294
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