‘Ella the Great’ Strikes Out Cancer
On Oct. 9, just before the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first playoff game against the New York Mets, a pint-sized figure in a Dodger jersey and cap—and a frilly, powder-blue tutu—strolled onto the field at Dodger Stadium in front of 52,000 cheering fans.
The tutu-wearing star was 4-year-old Ella Annear, aka “Ella the Great,” and she was there to throw out the game’s ceremonial first pitch. That would be an exciting moment for anyone, but for Ella and her parents—Amanda and Allister Annear—it had special meaning.
After all, 2015 has been a really, really hard year for the family, starting back in February. That’s when, out of the blue, Amanda found a strange lump on Ella’s abdomen and, as she describes it, “we were hit by the cancer Mack truck.”
‘Long live Ella the Great!’
Ella was diagnosed with an aggressive, uncommon liver cancer called hepatoblastoma—and it had spread to her lung. Initially, she was treated at another area hospital. But that hospital didn’t specialize in kids, and it had little experience with Ella’s kind of cancer.
With the support of the Dodgers (Allister works as the team’s vice president of merchandising and retail), the family launched a nationwide search for the best care for Ella. Amanda and her husband soon realized, though, that they only had to travel a half-hour from their West Hollywood home to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
“Children’s Hospital was in a completely different league; we knew we were now getting the best care in the world,” Allister says. “And everyone there respects the child. They would explain things to Ella in a way she could understand.”
At CHLA, Ella was put under the care of Leo Mascarenhas, MD, deputy director of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases and section head of Oncology, and James Stein, MD, associate chief of the Department of Surgery and the hospital’s chief quality officer, who removed the tumors from Ella’s liver and lungs in April. Next, Ella underwent 15 weeks of intense chemotherapy, enduring harsh side effects, multiple fevers and hospitalizations, pneumonia and more.
Still, she lost none of her fighting spirit. Early on, Allister coined the nickname “Ella the Great,” and “Long live Ella the Great!” became the family’s inspirational rallying cry.
The Annears organized a Tumblr site for family and friends, posting photos and videos of Ella being, well, Ella the Great—donning a white fedora and moonwalking to Michael Jackson videos, belting out Katy Perry’s “Roar,” and, too sick to get up from her hospital bed, tapping out a drum solo on her pillow to “Rock and Roll All Nite” by Kiss.
“Ella is a force,” Amanda says. “She draws you into her world. She’ll go right up to a stranger—bald head, nose tube and all—and say, ‘Hi! Do you want to play hide-and-seek with me?’ There’s a definite strength in her that helped her get through this.”
First pitch
In September, Ella’s family received fantastic news: Her treatment was finished. Tests show Ella is NED—no evidence of disease.
Just weeks later, Ella was on the field at Dodger Stadium, delivering a perfectly aimed pitch that bounced directly over the plate and into the glove of the Dodgers’ Jimmy Rollins.
The crowd roared. “It’s time for Dodger baseball!” she shouted into the microphone.
Much more importantly, it’s time for Ella to go back to her preschool, her friends, her 10 different-colored tutus, her living-room dance parties, and her ballet and gymnastics classes—time to leave cancer behind and just be a kid.
Long live Ella the Great!
