A distraught mother has revealed the heartbreaking moment she told her little girl that she had cancer.

Debbie Davis Seib has also laid bare how daughter Abby "wished she hadn’t been born" after her excruciating headaches turned out to be a brain tumour .

Nothing could prepare mum Debbie to break the news of the devastating diagnosis to the then six-year-old, who for months had been too unwell to go to school.

But Debbie knew she had to tell her "sweet pea".

She took a deep breath before saying: "You know those bad headaches and the vomiting you keep having?"

"Yes mom, they hurt," Abby replied.

"It’s because you have something growing in there that shouldn’t be there. We have to get it out."

The brave youngster, from Davison, Michigan in the US, didn’t cry, instead she replied "Ok mom".

Moments earlier Debbie had broken down in the hospital car park.

It had taken minutes for her world to crumble when the doctor called her and husband Dave to one side in a room "that felt like it was smaller than a cardboard box".

She screamed "no no no no" as they were told Abby had a tumour in her brain and it looked to be a cancer that children are known to get.

"I felt my whole self being thrown into a hellish nightmare, one I couldn’t leave, but one that could possibly take my beautiful daughter away," Debbie told Love What Matters .

Debbie and Dave had started to become concerned something was wrong with their daughter in the winter of 2017 when she started to lack concentration and repeat her words.

She was initially tested for ADHD and given medication, but her parents stopped her taking it when she told them she didn’t like the way it made her feel.

Things started to gradually get worse in 2018 when she would be sent home from school with headaches. It was not of huge concern for Debbie as migraines ran in her family.

But when Abby began waking up in pain and vomiting that’s when she became deeply concerned.

Dave and Debbie took her to the doctor and he did several tests, including checking her hand-eye coordination. He then referred Abby to a neurologist.

It was while there that the youngster started vomiting, however the neurologist "didn’t seem too concerned".

Debbie, who is also mum to Zach, 13, recalled: "He told us everything is fine. ‘I see at least 7 kids in here a day with symptoms like your daughter.’

"He told us it is probably due to allergies. He patted my daughter on the head, and gave her a pen."

Abby was prescribed allergy medication, but the doctor who had referred Abby to the neurologist was not convinced.

He advised Debbie to take her daughter to the emergency department to have a CT scan.

"Don’t worry, we will get the CT scan, get some headache medication and go home," Debbie had told the smiley youngster unaware of the devastation to come.

The scan confirmed the worst and Abby was immediately taken to a children’s hospital where she was sedated and a biopsy was carried out to identify the cancerous tumour as Medulloblastoma.

As Abby was wheeled away for brain surgery she told her mum: "I’m scared, but I’ll be brave."

Four hours later when Debbie laid eyes on Abby after the operation she sobbed as she saw her baby girl covered in bandages and attached to drips.

Abby was in serious pain and couldn’t move her right arm. She also had double vision and suffered from Pos Fossa, a term that means the brain hasn’t recovered from the trauma.

But all she wanted was to go home.

In the months that followed she had to learn to retrain her brain and use her legs again.

After her seventh birthday she started radiation and her beautiful curly strawberry blonde hair had to be cut off.

Debbie said: "By the 10th treatment, it was gone. Abby didn’t like the radiation treatments because she could smell weird smells and could see flashes of the light."

Abby would go on to have 30 rounds of radiation.

Chemotherapy would also take its toll on the youngster leaving her crippled in pain.

In one heartbreaking picture of Abby she lies in a hospital bed screaming in agony. The youngster would go on to say the words no parent wants to hear.

"She has said many times she hates her life, she wishes she weren’t born. This is from a 7-year-old little girl," said Debbie.

"No child should know all the pain my little girl knows."

Abby is still undergoing treatment but is determined to win the fight. Her dream is to own a rescue farm.

She wants to save all the ‘hurt animals’. She told her mum: "You can do all the harder work, I will just give them the love they need."

Meanwhile, Debbie added: "Childhood cancer is something you can never walk away from without a piece of your heart and soul taken along the way.

"We learn to appreciate the moments better, love harder and live with the most heartfelt zest. Because for the parents that have to hear the words ‘your child has cancer,’ we are never ever giving up hope."

You can read more about Abby’s story here and find her Instagram page here .

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