A brain cancer researcher has revealed his own daughter is 'coming to the end of her journey' with the incurable disease.
Dr Matt Dun didn't show up to an event where he was due to highlight children's brain cancer awareness - because he had to be by his dying four-year-old's bedside.
His daughter Josie suffers from a rare, incurable brain cancer and was admitted to hospital on the morning of the event, according to the Sydney Morning Herald .
He told the newspaper his daughter has not got much longer.
"She is not doing OK. She is coming to the end of her journey," Dr Dun said.
The little girl has diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) a rare inoperable cancer that mostly affects children and has an almost zero survival rate.
Patients diagnosed with the tumour are usually given only months to live.
Dr Dun is a University of Newcastle biologist, who focuses on fast-growing cancers affecting children.
He told media 36 Australian children die from brain cancer every year, including 20 from DIPG, saying there were no recognised treatments.
The dad said: "Until we do the work to really understand the biology of the disease, kids are still going to face a bleak prognosis, which is 300 days from diagnosis to death."
He had been due to highlight the need for more funding for research into paediatric cancers at the speaking event in Melbourne alongside Australia's health leader on Thursday, local time, before he rushed to be with his daughter's bedside.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Government would provide AUD$5 million(£2.7m) toward funding for childhood brain cancer clinical trials.
A devastated couple have revealed their seven-year-old girl has been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of terminal cancer.
Josie is suffering from the same rare brain cancer as a little Scottish girl.
Seven-year-old Laia Jenkin's family today appealed for help to make her final weeks memorable after being told she has just three to six months to live.
Her parents, Lorna and Lee Jenkins, received the devastating news earlier this month that their daughter has DIPG.
The couple from Wishaw, Scotland, were heartbroken to discover that the condition has a zero survival rate and are now trying to help little Laia complete her bucket list in the time she has left.
You can read her story here .
