10-Year-Old Girl With Breast Cancer Looking on the Bright Side

Hannah Powell-Auslam, 10, has had surgery, first chemo treatment to beat cancer.

ByABC News via logo
May 18, 2009, 6:34 PM

June 3, 2009— -- It took all of 10 minutes for Hannah Powell-Auslam to lose her hair, a pre-emptive strike against the chemotherapy that would have taken it anyway.

The Fullerton, Calif., 10-year-old, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in April, has had a mastectomy and been through her first chemo treatment.

And, after a few tears, she's trying to make the best of her new buzz cut.

"I always try to look on the bright side with everything," Hannah said today in a "Good Morning America" exclusive interview.

Such spunk is typical for Hannah, who is one of the few hundred children to ever have this kind of cancer.

"You feel like you're sick all the time," Hannah said of the effects of her chemotherapy. "You just want to go lay in bed and be in your closed-off little box."

Click here to read Hannah's family's blog.

Because mainstream breast cancer treatments were developed for adults (an estimated 180,000 women will be diagnosed this year), Hannah's chemotherapy must be tailored to her small size. "I feel like a kid inside, but sometimes I feel like an adult when I was at the hospital," Hannah said.

Hannah's mother Carrie Auslam told "Good Morning America" that the day her daughter was diagnosed has been the worst moment of this journey. Hannah had complained about an itch on her side and when Auslam looked, she felt a lump.

Doctors assured her it couldn't possibly be breast cancer, until the biopsy came back.

"She cried for about three minutes and she's had a couple of moments," Auslam said of her daughter. "But she stood up after we talked and she goes, 'Let's do it.'"

Dr. Marisa Weiss, president and founder of Breastcancer.org and author of the book "Taking Care of Your 'Girls': A Breast Health Guide for Girls, Teens, and In-Betweens (2008)," said there's a concern about pollutants, pesticides and hormones in certain foods and drinks and their effects on breast-cell growth.

"It is extremely rare to have breast cancer in a 10-year-old girl and we don't know exactly why this would happen," she said. "We think that estrogen ... has to play a role."

So, as Hannah began treatment, her family threw her a party to say good bye, for now, to her hair. Her family applauded and, in solidarity, her father, grandfather and little brother all got buzz cuts as well.

"It hurt," her mother said. "She shouldn't have to do it. I've told her a thousand times, 'I wish I could take it away from you. I really do.'"