Eden was three years old when in July 2017 she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood. Her mum Katy shares her story.
Before Eden’s diagnosis, life was busy for us! She was involved with cheerleading, forest school, play school and adventures! We visited baby groups and met up with friends and family on a regular basis. Eden was a very active and independent toddler.
This all started to change when Eden began experiencing various joint pains for a few months, which were incredibly painful and stopped her doing activities she loved. She also became very lethargic, particularly during the day. The doctors kept telling me she had ‘pulled elbow’ or other explanations. But, when on holiday in France in June 2017, I noticed her skin had a yellow tone and started to suspect it was more serious. She then developed a lump on her neck and got a severe case of chicken pox. On the return home, she was being sick.
I took her to the doctor and she asked me many questions that I knew were related to cancer. We were referred to hospital, where the tests only showed severe anaemia. It was a relief as that was the lesser evil. We started on iron supplements, but after two or three weeks, Eden’s iron level was actually going down. They told me this wasn’t really possible and brought us back in to have more tests.
On 14 July 2017, they took us into a room and confirmed our worst fears - Eden had cancer. Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), to be exact. Everything that followed was a bit of a whirlwind. We got taken to a ward where we spent a couple of days of Eden having various blood tests and cannulas. She was trying so hard to be brave. We then moved onto the Paediatric Oncology ward, Ward 27 at the Leicester Royal infirmary. The team there were amazing!
We opted into a trial which gave her more intense chemotherapy, but allowed us to have less lumbar punctures in the long run. She had a set of ‘Wigglies’ put into her chest, otherwise known as a Hickman line. All her treatments and blood draws could be done via the tubes, making it a lot less invasive than having cannulas etc.
After two years and three months of different chemotherapies, hospital stays, drips, lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirates and more, Eden is now doing amazingly and absolutely thriving. She does more activities than ever, including cheer, swimming, Brownies and after-school clubs. She’s a very lively child and gets more and more sassy the older she gets! She’s obsessed with space and science, and loves to play with her friends and make new ones…she is very sociable. Eden is very clever, and enjoys maths and science, in particular. She is very girlie and loves make up, dresses and having pink hair occasionally! Her favourite thing in the world is her bearded dragon, called Bruno.
We love to raise money and usually sell the gold badges for CCLG in September to help raise awareness of childhood cancer. Eden is soon going to be raising money for her Brownies charity badge and wanted the money to go to a worthy cause and help other children. While the Special Named Fund was my suggestion, Eden is very excited to raise money and achieve her charity badge! Eden has decided she wants to do a bake sale, firstly, and she will also continue to sell the gold badges and is hoping to do other events in the future. We’ve got lots of people wanting to support us, and our friends and family can’t wait to get involved.
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Research projects funded
Developing ways to identify chemotherapy resistant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells
Fundraising pages
Text CCLGEDEN to 70085 to donate £5.
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You can make a donation or pay in funds raised by cheque, payable to CCLG, to CCLG, Century House, 24 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GB. Please ensure you make it clear that the donation is for Eden's Fierce Fight so that your donation is allocated to the correct fund.