Six-year-old cancer patient Diamond Marshall melted hearts around the world when she got her wish to meet the Duchess of Cambridge this past July. Now she's received her ultimate wish: to be cancer-free.
"On Monday, they removed the last visible tumours so she is cancer-free," her father Lyall Marshall said, noting that the little girl is now recovering from surgery at Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary. "In her mind, getting better [means]going playing with your six-year-old buddies in the park, so she can't wait to do that."
Diamond captured international media attention when she hugged Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, on a Calgary tarmac during the her visit to Canada with Prince William last summer.
She had watched the royal couple's wedding from a hospital bed, and had told The Children's Wish Foundation that she wished to meet a princess. She evidently didn't mind that the Duchess isn't technically a princess. During the brief encounter, arranged by the charity, she was seen in her white dress, sprinting for the Duchess to give her a hug.
Diamond's mother died in 2007 due to cancer. Diamond was initially diagnosed with stage four, or advanced, undifferentiated sarcoma. But Mr. Marshall said Thursday that a major operation in August revealed she actually had a rare, adrenal-type cancer instead.
Mr. Marshall said he believes the royal meeting gave his little girl a needed boost. "I do feel that little hug sure as helped in the fight for her life."
Diamond will need to undergo high-dose chemotherapy in January, but she is in good spirits, he said.
Jason Evanson, the Alberta and Northwest Territories chapter director for The Children's Wish Foundation, said the charity has been following her condition closely. "Diamond has been through an awful lot, and this news at this time of year couldn't be better," he said.
The royal couple is also cheered by the news. An e-mailed statement from a spokesman from St. James's Palace said: "We have passed the news to Their Royal Highnesses, who asked us to convey how pleased they are to hear the delightful news and their best wishes to Diamond and her family [at]this happy time."
Wency Leung