Family's tough fertility decision for their 'miracle' baby girl fighting cancer

Sommer Purdie has endured more than many will in a lifetime and she's only one year old.

"She was our miracle baby," mother Jess Purdie told A Current Affair.

"We lost a baby a year earlier through miscarriage to the date that Sommer was born."

For more information about Sommer's story, click here

Sommer is a smiley little girl who loves playing with her older sisters Lily and Phoebe, and big brother Elijah.

When we visited the Purdie family at their home in Melbourne, Sommer was happy and content - you would never know just how hard she's had to fight to live.

Born in January 2024, Sommer was a normal healthy baby.

But at about seven months old, Jess and father Ryan realised something wasn't right.

"We noticed she was starting to go a bit clammy, a bit blue...and we rushed her to the local hospital. They thought it was just a severe case of bronchiolitis," Jess said.

"They did a chest x-ray and found a nine by nine centimetre mass in her chest... and her heart pushed into her left ribcage."

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Little Sommer was rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital where she underwent emergency surgery to remove the cancer in her chest.

But it wasn't until doctors did genetic testing of her tumour that Ryan and Jess learned it was caused by a genetic condition called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.

"She doesn't have a gene that stops cancer growth," Jess explained.

So far, Sommer has endured seven rounds of chemotherapy at the Royal Children's Hospital, with two to go before another 12 months of maintenance therapy.

By virtue of her cancer treatment, Ryan and Jess are now having to make decisions about their one-year-old's fertility.

Chemotherapy causes damage to the ovaries and the eggs that Sommer already has, so her fertility window will be reduced.

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As if there aren't enough unknowns for Sommer's future, doctors won't know for many years whether she will still be able to have her own children.

"They gave us the option of going straight to chemo and not preserving her ovaries or preserving her ovaries and putting chemo on hold," Jess explained.

Given Sommer's chances of passing Li-Fraumeni Syndrome onto her own children, the parents decided to prioritise her cancer treatment.

So, that means Ryan and Jess are working on other options to give Sommer a chance at one day becoming a mother herself.

"We need to get gene-tested for Li-Fraumeni Syndrome and if it all comes back clear, either Jess or Lily will donate their eggs for Sommer's future," Ryan said.

Sommer's big sister Lily is 15 years old.

She's made the brave and generous decision to donate eggs, if she can.

"It's important obviously because I want her to have her own future, children one day," Lily said.

Speaking about having to make these difficult decisions about their baby daughter's future, Jess says "it's a tug of war".

"You don't know what Sommer's goals or wishes are, as an adult," she explained.

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"So she may never want children…but on the other side, she may want many children and she might not be able to."

Whilst Sommer is now in remission, her diagnosis means she'll need lifelong monitoring in case cancer returns.

The financial costs of Sommer's diagnosis - along with caring for their three other children - has made an incredibly emotional and stressful time even more burdensome.

Ryan and Jess say their expenses include medical costs, travel and accommodation and in the future they're facing the costs associated with Jess or Lily's egg preservation.

On top of that, neither Jess or Ryan can work due to caring for Sommer, attending medical appointments and caring for their three other children.

Living with the uncertainty of Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, Sommer's loving mum and dad don't take anything for granted.

"We hope that she is able to be a mother, but just one day at a time is what we've prepared ourselves for, " Ryan said.