'I want to ensure them it will be okay': Teenager with rare disease looking to help others

While spending her entire life in and out of hospital battling a rare blood disease, Andie Morrison, 16, is determined to keep up her fight while giving back to help others.

“They called me a porcelain doll because I was so pale and perfect, but they didn’t know anything was wrong until I started throwing up and I wasn’t able to move,” said Andie.

Within hours she was diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan anemia which is a rare bone marrow failure.

Her mother, Jenn Morrison, said she almost didn’t make it and told CTV News London, “She was on the brink of death.”

While battling her disease Andie has had a lifetime of blood transfusions. Up to the age of 16 she’s had 240 of them, but that has now changed.

In June, she had a bone marrow transplant and no longer requires transfusions.

Because of all the help she’s received from the London Health Sciences Centre she wants to give back with a career in the medical field.

“I want to be a radiology technologist because growing up in the hospital I’ve had multiple, multiple ultrasounds,” said Andie. “With all the time I’ve spent in hospital you see all the things that can be so overwhelming for children and I want to ensure them it will be okay.”

Andie’s mom said her daughter has always been a fighter and she proud of how she’s battled her whole life.

“She has compassion, she’s empathetic and she genuinely wants to help,” said Jenn.