A mother has shared a heartbreaking photo highlighting the devastating impact cancer has on families.

Ally Parker's five-year-old daughter is fighting a losing battle against an aggressive form of brain cancer, while her father is terminally-ill with a motor neuron disease.

The mother from Florida now faces the grim prospect of having to bury both her daughter and father within weeks of each other.

So she uploaded a gut-wrenching photo to  on Sunday showing her father, Sean Peterson, wailing by his granddaughter's hospital bed.

The sheer expression of agony on his face conveys a pain the whole family is forced to endure.

They are currently collecting donations via apage that seeks to raise $300,000 for the procedures.

The treatment, not covered by insurance, cost nearly $30,000 a round, and due to the aggressive nature of this cancer, several rounds are needed for success, The Advertiser reported.

'Braylynn is still here. Pulse is still strong. Vitals are still normal,' Parker wrote on Monday.

'It may take a few days, because everything is going to be PERFECT for her big day. Until then, she is still with us, still fighting, still strong.'

Parker says she is now determined to raise awareness for and funding for DIPG, setting up a Facebook page called

'My baby girl deserves to live a full, happy life, and so does every other child who has had to face DIPG,' Parker writes on the social media site.

'We have to put an end to this. No more kids can get this disease and be allowed to die from it. We HAVE to find a cure, not a damn band aid. These kids deserve so much more than that, someday soon someone needs to find out what that cure is.'