Mum finds tumour on daughter's spine one year after losing husband to cancer

Brooke, Joel and their daughter Peachy. Photo / Supplied

A widowed mum still grieving the loss of her husband to brain cancer has been hit by fresh tragedy after discovering a tumour on her infant daughter's spine.

Australian Brooke Bretherton shared the grim news, revealing how it was her mother who first noticed something was wrong with one-year-old Peachy.

"[Peachy] was nappy free and mum just said, 'what's that lump on her back?'," Bretherton told Australia's 7 News. "I hadn't seen it."

Bretherton said she immediately put her daughter in the car and took her to hospital, the memory of her husband's cancer battle fresh in her mind.

Doctors later confirmed her worst fear, little Peachy had cancer.

Brooke Bretherton and her daughter Peachy. Photo / Supplied

The devastating diagnosis came a little over a year after Bretherton's husband Joel died after battling brain cancer.

It was the end of a long fight, with Joel first being diagnosed in 2006.

Surgery in 2018 was believed to have been successful, but the cancer came back last year and quickly took his life.

"I have just been finding my feet as a single mum and trying to grieve my best friend and the love of my life, and I'm still grieving," Brooke Bretherton told 7 News, "and then this has happened."

"We're trying not to melt the two stories together because obviously, they're separate journeys but it doesn't mean that memories don't flood back - it's just brutal."

For treatment, Brooke and Peachy needed to cross state borders into Queensland from their home in NSW.

The shift required isolation in Brisbane Children's Hospital and it was while quarantined that Peachy's condition deteriorated rapidly.

"Within 24 hours she was dancing, and the next day she couldn't walk," Bretherton said.

Further tests this week revealed that Peachy, who is suffering "excruciating pain", has Ewing's Sarcoma and will need chemotherapy followed by invasive operations.

Bretherton told 7 News that she taking it all "day by day".

Peachy will turn two in October. Photo / Supplied

"[Peachy] was laughing last night and I [thought] - if I have that beautiful laugh then it's all OK. It's a new day, tomorrow will be different. I've just got to be mouldable and go with the flow," she said.

"She's a really beautiful bubble of love that girl, and she's got a very strong daddy, and she's a fighter. She's been through a lot and I'm just holding onto the fact that I know that she's just going to push the boundaries, and hopefully, it will be gone."

A Go Fund Me page has been set up to support the single mum and has already raised over $93,000.

"The GoFundMe has just lifted so much off my shoulders, and my mind and my heart and allowed me to breathe and take my daughter in and know that that part of the journey is ok," Bretherton said.

"As a single mum living in today's world it's really not the easiest and then having this.

"When you've got so much in front of you, it's really difficult to navigate which part to deal with that day."