The mother of a young girl with a rare form of leukaemia has spoken out about how a chemotherapy Barbie called Ella has helped her daughter.
Melissa Bumstead says that the doll 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,” she explained.
“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.
Grace playing with her Ella doll (images via YouTube/ HLN). 
