Girl aged just THREE beats breast cancer after becoming the youngest ever victim of the disease



Brave youngster: Aleisha Hunter, now four, has beaten breast cancer after becoming its youngest known victim

A three-year-old girl has made a full recovery from breast cancer after becoming the youngest person ever to be diagnosed with the disease.

Aleisha Hunter, from Toronto, Canada, needed a mastectomy after doctors discovered the cause of a lump which appeared on her chest in December 2008 when she was two.

However she is now clear of the disease - and now aged four, has been speaking about what happened to her.

'I know I had cancer in my booby and that the doctors made it better,' she said. 'I know that cancer can make some people go to heaven, but I am better now.'

Her mother, Melanie, said she was 'stunned' when she found out the cause of the lump on her daughter's chest, which she first noticed while drying her after a bath.

'It was a tiny little hard lump, the size of a pea,' she said. 'I thought it was a harmless cyst.'

After hospital tests Melanie was told it was nothing serious and Aleisha was sent home - but the lump carried on growing.

'I thought it couldn't be serious as the hospital had checked it out,' said Melanie - although she rushed her daughter back to hospital in January 2009 after the lump had grown to 2cm and was causing Aleisha such pain she was unable to sleep.

'I couldn't believe it when they told me what it was,' she added after further tests revealed it was breast cancer. 'I was unbelievably shocked - stunned. I didn't think a child that young could get breast cancer.'

Aleisha immediately underwent a mastectomy and had 16 lymph nodes removed from her armpit to see if the cancer had spread. Luckily they were clear - meaning she did not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy - and she was back home three days later.

'We were so shocked when the diagnosis was made,' said her surgeon Dr Nancy Down. 'I've been dealing with breast cancer cases for 25 years and have never come across a patient this young. She is the youngest known case in the world.'

Constant companion: Aleisha's teddy bear Ash was by her side as she recovered from surgery - and even had his own oxygen mask

It was the second time in her life Aleisha had undergone surgery, having had an operation on a cleft palate when she was eight months old.

That time her beloved teddy bear Ash was by her side throughout - and he was there again as she battled cancer, at one point even being given his own oxygen mask.

Doctors have said the cancer is unlikely to return, but she faces regular check-ups for the next few years, and reconstructive breast surgery when she is a teenager.

'She's been very brave through it all,' Melanie said.

The previous youngest known breast cancer victim is Hannah Powell-Auslam from California, who was 10 years old when she was diagnosed in 2008.

Breast cancer is rare in young girls because there is little tissue in the area and it is unaffected by female sex hormones.

The risk increases at puberty after breast tissue starts growing, although the disease normally affects women aged 30 and over.