The pint-sized pre-schooler has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and is 12 months into a 30-month chemotherapy treatment program.

In the year since she was diagnosed, Adelaide’s young body has undergone life-impacting changes, including stunted growth, rapid weight gain, affected vision, hair loss, insertion of a port-a-cath in her chest, swelling in her tummy and face, and muscle deterioration to the point of not being able to walk.

Despite countless hours in John Hunter Hospital, daily treatment, a highly-restricted social life, and the need to stay within an hour’s drive of the hospital, Adelaide’s zest for life has not diminished and neither has her friendship with six-year-old Marnee Walters, despite the distance now between them.

Adelaide and Marnee met two years ago at pre-school in Gunnedah and their families became fast friends. The Gurrs moved to Maitland on January 15, 2016 and 10 days later, Adelaide was diagnosed. 

The Walters have visited the Gurrs a number of times, and it was during these visits that Marnee witnessed the changes taking place in Adelaide.

When Adelaide lost her hair, her mother Kirran said Marnee became fascinated with the change.

“She’d say, ‘I want hair like Adelaide’,” Kirran said.

Though she won’t be bald like Adelaide, Marnee will undergo the chop after deciding to donate her hair to Variety–The Children’s Charity so it can be made into wigs for children with medical conditions.

“Like I’ve said to [her mother], Meleah a thousand times, it’s such a selfless act,” Kirran said.

“Ever since Marnee saw Adelaide lose her hair, she said she wanted to cut it off and give it to someone else.”

Meleah has started a GoFundMe campaign to highlight the reason behind Marnee’s good deed, and raise money to help the Gurrs with ongoing costs and medical bills.

The hope is to raise $5000 to ease the financial strain on Kirran and her husband Dave, who have two other children and only one wage because someone must be with Adelaide around the clock.

Meleah said she wanted to create awareness of the Gurrs’ difficult situation.

“I have a daughter that’s four years old, the same age as Adelaide, and I think that it could quite easily be our family in their shoes; it could be us in that situation,” she said.

“I’ve seen exactly what they’ve gone through in the last 12 months and a lot of people are there at the beginning when the diagnosis has first happened but it’s still a long road ahead.”

Even though Adelaide is responding well to chemotherapy, there are 18 months of treatment remaining, and the possibility of relapse.

“When we had the last appointment before Christmas, we were quite surprised at how low her blood cells were because she is keeping up with the other kids; she’s running around. And that’s when our doctor said, ‘Don’t get complacent’,” Kirran said.

Adelaide was essentially house-bound last year and anyone entering the Gurrs’ household must wash their hands and use anti-bacterial gel to reduce the risk of exposing Adelaide to germs. 

“You can’t go out in public with them because they’re so low in their immunity,” Kirran said.

“Even minor things like a cold sore can cause such problems.”

For the first time since her diagnosis, Adelaide was recently able to travel to Gunnedah with her family to stay at the Walters house for the weekend.

“We call it Hunter Prison. She couldn’t go longer than an hour from John Hunter until we got reluctant permission for her to go to Gunnedah for two nights,” Kirran said.

“She was really struggling and she was missing out on so much all the time and was busting to see Marnee and Kallie.”

Adelaide’s hair is now growing back but her mother said it didn’t seem to bother her when she had none.

“It wasn’t a bit impact on Adelaide when she lost her hair. She was just stoked that she didn’t have to wash her hair any more,” Kirran said.

Adelaide found a love for wigs during her hairless days and even got a wig modelled after Elsa’s hair in the Disney movie Frozen.

“She used to wear the wig everywhere,” Kirran said.

“She’d get hot and she’d whip it off and people would be horrified that she’d be bald.

“She has quite a fascination with hair. She always puts a hairband around her dress or skirt to make a pony.”

Kirran said she recently asked Adelaide if she could tidy up the hair around her ears.

“She said, ‘No, I’m not cutting it. I’m growing Elsa hair’,” Kirran said.

Among other positive changes, the youngster began attending Joey’s Preschool of Morpeth in November.

“A huge impact is going back to preschool,” Kirran said. 

“Just now she’s starting to do some normal stuff that four-year-old’s can do.

“This week she went to the movies for the first time in her life. She was beside herself because the television was so big.”

Kirran said it was incredible how Adelaide accepted what was happening to her and got on with it.

“I can’t believe how strong Adelaide is. She’s just a little machine. She just gets in there and does it all,” she said.

“Kids are so resilient and brave. People ask, ‘How do you guys do this?’, and we say, ‘Well, we don’t have a choice’.

“We just keep saying ‘One day at a time’. We keep saying it could always be worse.”

To follow Marnee’s hair donation and support the Gurr family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/adelaidepraylove