Ashley Cain is opening up about his daughter’s health battle. The 30-year-old British reality star, who appeared on both Ex on the Beach and The Challenge, took to Instagram on Thursday to give an update on his nearly eight-month-old daughter, Azaylia, whom he shares with his girlfriend, Safiyya Vorajee.
Azaylia was diagnosed with leukemia last year at just two months old. In a 10 minute-long video, Cain revealed that his daughter’s condition has worsened, and that she has “days to live.”
Things took a turn for the worse last week, when doctors discovered two tumors on Azaylia’s brain. The treatment Azaylia had been using up to that point, Cain said, was no longer an option, as her new tumors caused “too much pressure” in her brain. Likewise, a spinal tap was off the table because the procedure “would kill her.”
“At that point, obviously, our world came down,” he said. “…They think she’s only got one, two days to live.”
Cain and Vorajee took their daughter home at that point, where she was cared for by a palliative care team.
“It was scary. You walk into your little daughter’s room and there’s big oxygen tanks and stuff like that. It was horrible,” he said. “We took her home. She was on high levels of pain relief. We tried to enjoy every little bit we could, but it was tough.”
Just days after returning home, Cain said that he and Vorajee noticed that “Azaylia wasn’t really here properly.” In response, they opted to take her off pain relief, which seemed to help for a while.
“The next morning she was bright as a button. She had her sharpness back. She was responding to absolutely everything,” Cain said. “We sat there and we thought, ‘This disease is not killing our daughter. We need to do everything we can do to save this little girl’s life.'”
More determined than ever, the family returned to the hospital to “carry on treatment” for Azaylia, who Cain called “a fighter.”
“It would break me to stay at home to know that my daughter’s dying and I’m not doing anything about it… You only get one chance at life, so we are going to do everything to preserve hers,” he explained. “Because when you’re gone, you’re gone… She’s fought the hard, tough fight the whole way through, so I want to honor that and give her the best chance.”
They spent a few days in the hospital and things were looking up; Azaylia was on a drug her parents had “fought to get” and new treatment options were being discussed. However, a Wednesday ultrasound only brought bad news.
“They found tumors in her stomach and her spleen, her lungs, her kidneys, as well as the tumors in her brain,” he said. “And the chemotherapy’s not working. Her disease is that aggressive, that nothing they are doing, nothing’s working.”
Treatment for Azaylia’s condition, Cain said, has been so challenging because “Azaylia’s one in a trillion. She literally is… But unfortunately, so is her disease.”
With that news, the parents decided to take their daughter home to live out her days.
“We’re going back home and we’re gonna try to make our baby as comfortable. We’re going to have as much fun as we can with her as possible,” he said. “… Azaylia hasn’t got a voice yet, but I think if she had a voice she’d want to be at home, too. So we’re gonna take her home, and we’re gonna enjoy stuff… We’re gonna have fun. We’re gonna be strong. We’re gonna go out with honor.”
Cain next reflected on his daughter’s “tough, tough life,” saying through tears, “From eight weeks old she’d been in hospital having chemotherapy, operations, transplants. I feel like for the last part of her life, I just want to take her home, see her like a baby and give her the best rest of her life that we can give her.”
Despite the grief he feels, Cain said he’s determined to make Azaylia’s remaining days happy ones.
“I’ve been upset. I’ve been sad. I’ve been depressed. I’ve been heartbroken. Some days I don’t even know where I am,” he said. “But I think right about now I’ve got to step up more than ever, and I’ve got to be stronger than I’ve been the whole time. I’m doing it for her. She needs to see her daddy smiling. She needs to see her mommy smiling.”
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Vorajee also posted about her daughter’s condition, calling it “the saddest news of my life.”
After sharing much of the same information as Cain, Vorajee wrote, “We will be now returning home with our beautiful baby to give her the best possible time left that we can.”
“I am so proud of my baby girl she has been fighting for so so long, and doesn’t deserve this to happen to her! there isn’t enough words out there to describe the heartache and pain I’m feeling but I’m incredibly honored to have become a mummy to my precious girl,” she wrote. “I don’t have many words at this difficult time But for now Thankyou for all your love and support for Azaylia and us as a family.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNam1YsnPFL/
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On Friday, Cain shared pics of Azaylia taking a bath in the hospital before their return home.
“Nine days ago consultants told us my daughter had 1-2 days to live, but thought she may pass that evening,” he wrote. “Even with a barbaric disease consuming her blood, tumors in her brain and organs and amounts of pain I cannot imagine… She is still battling through 9 days later, with parts of the day with nothing but smiles despite her discomfort.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNckkrUHlzg/
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Cain said Azaylia’s perseverance was “a testament of this little girls strength and the fight she has possessed all of the way through.”
“She has fought a battle that not many, if any, of us could have endured and she’s earned the love and respect of many on the way,” he wrote. “The truth is though, I hope and pray that I have earned hers! Even through the hardest and saddest time of my life, she has found a way to make it better. She has shined light on the darkest of days and she has opened my heart to amounts of love I couldn’t believe possible!”
“The truth is, I don’t know what I will do without you. But for now, I find strength in giving you the best of me, and the only me that you deserve!” Cain continued. “You are in my arms, my thoughts, my prayers and my heart everyday my princess. YOU’RE MY HERO! DADDY LOVES YOU!”
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