BiographyElsie was born in 2013, we couldn’t believe our luck she was a healthy, beautiful little baby girl. As she grew into a child she was very active. She loved gymnastics, football and riding her bike. She was always on the go and was never ill. Which is how I noticed things weren’t right fairly quickly.
In June 2023 I noticed that Elsie had lost weight. She had not long signed for Yeovil Town Women’s U11 football club. She was training a lot as well as gymnastics and cross country for her school so at first I put it down to that. Then I noticed that she wasn’t eating very much, she just said that she wasn’t hungry. She became so tired after school she just wanted to curl up on the sofa which wasn’t like her at all as she was always so eager to go straight out to play with her friends. She was still doing all of her sports clubs and didn’t want to stop them, insisting she was “fine” but I just knew something wasn’t right.
I tried to get her to go to the doctors but she was terrified of them and insisted she was ok. At the end of August she ran a fever so I took her in straight away. They said it was probably “just viral” and weren’t particularly interested in the amount of weight she had lost, but to come back in a months time if things hadn’t improved. It didn’t sit right with me so a couple of days later when she still had a high temperature I took her to the hospital to get checked. They ran some blood tests, which came back showing that her iron levels were a bit low. Nothing to worry about but to bring her back if not improved so when she still had the fever I took her back again. I just had a gut feeling there was more to it. They repeated the tests and sent them off for further investigation. A couple of days later we had a call to say that there were some abnormalities and could we go back in. That is when they said the words no parent ever wants to hear “We think it could be cancer” our whole world came crashing down. Elsie ended up being blue lighted to Nottingham (4hours drive from our home) as there were no beds available for her locally. Which is where Elsie was officially diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. It was very hard being away from family and friends.
The first few weeks were a blur. So much information to take in, quick decisions and consent forms to be done so that Elsie could begin treatment asap. Elsie was so brave. To think how scared she was of a GP appointment to see her dealing with all that was thrown at her was incredible. After a few weeks we returned home for Elsie to continue treatment at our nearest treatment centre.
As the days went on Elsie was deteriorating. She was so weak and in a lot of pain. She had a couple of admissions to our local hospital due to stomach pains but it was thought it was just side effects from the chemotherapy. She ended up in a wheelchair as she was too weak to walk and we had to get her a bed downstairs as she couldn’t manage to get up them. At the beginning of November we took Elsie to her main treatment centre for what we thought was going to be physio. When we arrived Elsie was in so much pain and they admitted her. It’s then we discovered that Elsie had a reaction to one of the chemos that she had been given and it had given her pancreatitis. She was very poorly and ended up needing a week in the high dependency unit. She was unable to eat or drink anything and was too weak to even turn over in bed. But, with the help from the amazing consultants, nurses and physios Elsie slowly fought her way back. She gradually regained her strength and learnt to walk again. On the 16th December she was discharged home for Christmas. She restarted chemotherapy straight away which we were all feeling very apprehensive about. She has gone from strength to strength. The last few months she has breezed through each block of treatment and has even been back out on her bike and going out to see her friends on the weekends.
Elsie has one more block to go and then she has finished frontline and reaches maintenance treatment. Maintenance treatment lasts for another couple of years so she still has a long way to go but we hope that she will be back at school and doing more of the things that she loves.
Elsie has grown so much, her strength astounds us and all that know her. She has up and down days but for the most part she is back to her crazy self with her great sense of humour.
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