Sydney woman becomes a nurse after beating childhood cancer

Nikki Quinn said she didn't become a nurse for the "money or the accolades" and neither did any of her "incredible" work colleagues, probably because such things are usually few and far between.

Now, thankfully, due to the coronavirus crisis and in particular today, on International Nurse's Day, there's plenty of praise coming their way.

And don't they deserve it.

The 29-year-old Sydney woman works in a children's orthopaedics ward and has been a registered nurse for three years. She said that since the coronavirus crisis began, the job hasn't changed too much for her.

"We obviously get scanned when we arrive each day and our temperature is taken and we are asked questions to make sure we are all healthy, but inside the ward we do our hand washing and gowning up every day to prevent against infection.

"Infection control has always been a priority, but there are definitely things in place to protect us (from coronavirus). Parents are also screened and there is only one parent allowed at a child's bedside at a time."

She said her job involves more than just nursing. Like any caring profession, it involves much, much more.

"I come in and get handovers in the morning and then it's usually medication rounds and obs (blood pressure and temperature checks) on all the kids," she said. "Parents will usually use that time to grab a coffee so sometimes we'll sit with kids while they have breakfast and play games with them, especially with long-term patients who have more traumatic injuries."

Following that, some patients will attend 'hospital school' or head off for other appointments such as physiotherapy.

"With kids its super important that we build a rapport with them and their parents," Nikki said. "They need to trust us with their child. And at the end of the day, if we don't have a rapport with a child, they won't do what we need them to do."

Nikki knows better than anyone what children in hospital need.

At the age of 13, she was diagnosed with leukaemia.

"I went to a sports high school so I trained every day," she said. "Sport was a massive part of our lives. I was just constantly getting injured and then not recovering as quickly as I should have. Then my personality changed, and my mum put it down to a teenager adjusting to high school.

It was after she returned from a school sporting trip that her mother took her to see a doctor after she began struggling to attend school.

"Looking back at photos of me then, my eyes were sunken and I was so skinny because I had lost a lot of weight."

The family GP told them it was most likely glandular fever, as a friend of Nikki's had just been diagnosed with the condition. They took some blood and sent her home.

The next day the doctor's office called and asked them to come straight in.

"We walked into the doctor's office and the receptionist - whose daughter I had danced with for years - had tears in her eyes," Nikki recalled. "They took us into a separate room and the doctor had tears in his eyes.

"I thought I was in trouble, but he sat us down and said to me that I had leukaemia which is a blood cancer and I'd have to go straight to hospital."

At that stage Nikki had only heard of old people getting cancer and dying from it.

"When the doctor left the room I turned to my mum and asked her if I was going to die. She said something to me that day that saved my life. She said, "No, you won't die, but it will be the toughest game of softball you'll ever play."

Nikki said her mother's words took "all the fear out of it" because I had a game plan.

What followed was chemotherapy and steroids, normal protocols for leukaemia patients, but Nikki suffered an allergic reaction to the chemotherapy drugs and fell into a coma.

A week-and-a-half later, after waking from that coma, she began suffering seizures and was placed into a medically induced coma.

It took two years and three days of treatment for Nikki to beat the disease.

"It was actually just recently the anniversary of the end of my treatment," she said. "I very vividly remember feeling happy and excited and overwhelmed. I had lost a lot of friends (to cancer) during my treatment and part of me struggled with survivors guilt, so it was definitely a roller coaster of emotions.

"But I was proud of myself and my family, that we overcame it."

Nikki now works in the same hospital in which she was treated and admitted that it is sometimes difficult due to PTSD from that time.

"To this day I can't walk through the side door at the main entrance because it triggers me so I go through the back door to get to work," she said. "Then there are certain times and dates that I take leave because of the memories."

Her health is still being affected by her cancer battle.

"I'm always getting check ups with doctors and I have to look after myself physically and mentally," she said. "It can be tough but I know when I have to stop pushing myself or take some time out. I'm learning to read my body better."

Nikki said she knew she wanted to be a nurse after the care she received from doctors and nurses who she still thinks of as "heroes".

"They were incredible, and I wanted to give back to the place that gave so much to me and the people who saved my life."

Nikki said it can be tough when patients are discharged from hospital. Despite her joy that they are well enough to do so, the emotional connection means mixed emotions are felt from both sides.

"It's tough in this space," she said. "You've cared for them for so long and especially long-term patients like spinal injures. They can be with us for a year and you build such a strong bond with them and their families.

"I remember one of my first long-term families leaving. We cried and cried but I was so happy and excited they were getting to go home."

Nikki said it takes "a special kind of person" to be a nurse.

"It usually takes someone who is very compassionate and likes taking care of other people, someone with the type of personality where money and accolades don't matter, all that matters is putting a smile on a patient's face."

Nikki said her colleagues are "like family".

"I work with the most incredible team on my ward. We are like family and we just pick each other up when we are down and especially with the stress of the past two months, it's been tough because we've had our own battles outside of work so we give each other support.

"We have a pretty special bond that is hard to beat because it's hard for other people to understand what our work is like inside these walls."

To celebrate International Nurses Day, she said staff were treated to pastries for breakfast and chicken and chips for lunch.

"I've also been getting a lot of 'thank yous' from families in hospital and messages from family and friends," she said.

"When things go back to some sort of normal, we'll have a nice big barbecue together."

Nikki has launched her own fundraising appeal to help raise money for the Children's Cancer Institute. Find out more by visiting the website.