SHE sat on a small chair trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
But her mother Mere Finau, on the other hand tries to hide her pain and tears from what she had labelled as "shocking and scary".
Her eight-year-old daughter, Aloisa Kalouniviti is suffering from Burkitt's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that is characterised by rapid enlargement of the patient's jaw, loosening of the teeth, protruding eyeballs, or an abdominal tumour in the region of the kidneys or ovaries.
They only came to learn that she had cancer two weeks ago following a month of investigation by the doctors at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
Ms Finau said her daughter had been re-admitted to the hospital for the last two years until June when doctors decided to investigate to determine her sickness.
"When the doctors told us that she's got cancer I was really scared," Ms Finau said while trying to fight back her tears.
"A lot of things crossed my mind and I did not know how to tell her."
"I don't know what to do, and it's terrible to hear sad news such as this but somehow I know it's going to be OK in the future," Ms Finau said.
The Class Three student of Latter Day Saints Primary School in Suva sat quietly on a chair beside her mother when she was visited by the students of Marist Brothers' High School (MBHS) yesterday.
Ms Finau said Aloisa had not talked much for the past few days and whatever she requested they tried to do it to make her happy.
"It's hard, but now that CWM Hospital can cure this disease we are grateful that my daughter is safe," she said.
Ms Finau thanked her husband Waseroma Kalouniviti for being strong despite the news from the doctors.
She said no parents could stand to see the face of their child in pain, but they had to be positive for the sake of their daughter's happiness.
Aloisa is the third eldest of four girls.
Dr Khalid Mahmood a paediatric consultant with the Children's Oncology Unit at the CWM Hospital said blood cancer topped the list of children diagnosed with cancer followed by brain, kidney, bone and eye cancer.
Burkitt's lymphoma is one of the most rapidly growing forms of human cancer and the number of new cases of this tumour is rising in most countries.