THE Jimboomba Relay for Life Face of Relay for 2014 is a courageous and determined nine-year-old girl who is inspiring others through her battle to beat cancer.
Lucy Newman was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow and blood, four months ago.
Since then, she has been fighting the disease with chemotherapy treatment.
In those four months what Lucy has endured most will not experience in a lifetime, but she continues to wear her beautiful smile, has a positive attitude and her cheeky sense of humour shines through.
She has undergone 17 operations, including regular lumber punctures, insertion and removal of ports and three chest drains, has had fevers and infections, has had her hair fall out and needed four blood and two platelet transfusions.
Because of the disease, Lucy has fractures in her spine and has to wear a brace to keep it straight, along with having monthly bone infusions to strengthen them.
Chemotherapy treatment has caused Lucy to have nausea and a loss of appetite so she now has a nasal gastric tube to give her the nutrients she needs.
Lucy has been a part of the Jimboomba Relay for Life events every year since she was a toddler and said she was excited to be chosen as this year's Face of Relay.
She said she hoped she could be an inspiration to other people also fighting cancer.
Although it was sometimes lonely being away from home having treatment in the Royal Children's Hospital, Lucy said she loved having visits from friends.
She said the hardest part so far had been going into surgery for the first time, but now that she knew all the doctors and nurses she did not find it as daunting.
"I miss the dogs and the chooks at home and I miss my friends. I want to go back to school," Lucy said.
Lucy's mum, Julie, said the past four months had been a steep learning curve for she and husband Roger to get their heads around the fact their daughter had cancer, what that meant and what treatment was needed to beat it.
With no other family in Australia, Ms Newman said they could not have done that without the support of their many friends in the Jimboomba community.
"It has been surreal but through it all Lucy has been very brave," she said.
"We know there is a long way to go and some intensive chemotherapy treatment ahead so we just take it one day at a time.
"The support we have had from the doctors, nurses and surgeons at the hospital has been brilliant."
Lucy's chemotherapy treatment is expected to continue for the next couple of years.
She said once it was finished she was looking forward to eating Vegemite and strawberry jam again.
"They just don't taste the same to me anymore, they taste horrible, but I just love them - especially Vegemite," Lucy said.
