Mother who lost eight-year-old daughter to cancer shares heartbreaking photo

Julie Apicella hopes to raise awareness for the gold ribbon of childhood cancer

Julie Apicella shared this picture of her daughter Emily Rush on social media (Facebook)

A mother has shared a heartbreaking photo in a bid to raise awareness of childhood cancer.

The image shows Julie Apicella’s daughter, Emily Rush, in her school uniform in 2015, and another in 2016 with an empty space.

Emily was diagnosed with Wilms Tumour, a type of kidney cancer, when she was five-years-old and passed away in December last year after a three-year battle, the Huffington Post reported.

Ms Apicella shared the photo on Facebook in the hope of raising awareness for childhood cancer symptoms.

“School photo time - obviously someone very special missing - my daughter Emily. Imagine if your school photo this year is the LAST you will ever be able to take and will just be a memory to remember,” she said.

The photo has been shared to raise awareness for the gold ribbon of childhood chancer symptoms.

“Raising awareness of symptoms and that childhood cancer is not rare is the first hurdle to jump," Ms Apicella wrote.

"Eventually the gold ribbon of childhood cancer will be as well-known as the pink ribbon for breast cancer but it takes people to actually post on social media ect for this to happen.”

September is child cancer awareness month and the post has been shared over 8,500 times so far.