The mum of a little girl with a rare form of leukaemia has spoken out about how a 'chemotherapy Barbie has helped her daughter.
Melissa Bumstead says that the doll - called Ella - has helped four-year-old Grace, who has a 75 per cent chance of a cure, come to terms with her situation.
“When they first met, she’s like, ‘Okay, I get what’s going on.’ But it gave us the chance to say, ‘Here’s a beautiful, smiling doll. It doesn’t have hair,” said Melissa.
The mum - from California in the US - said one of the hardest adjustments has been losing Grace’s blonde curls, but that’s where Ella came in.
The idea behind the doll, is that while she's had chemotherapy, just like Grace, she's very much still beautiful and still smiling.
“We bring (Ella) along everywhere to say, ‘This is what’s happening. This is what’s happened to Ella. This is what’s gonna happen to you.’ It brought it to her level”.
After hearing that the hospital at which Grace was being treated was running out of Ella dolls, Melissa started a petition.
In just three months, more than 100,000 people had signed it. On seeing this, Barbie manufacturer Mattel agreed to make more of the dolls and distribute them to hospitals in the US.
