Pearl had Ewing's sarcoma, a crafty cancer that hides in the bones growing quickly and silently, often maturing and spreading to other parts of the body before being discovered and diagnosed. Since her death, aged just 10, her family have been tirelessly raising funds for CCLG in Pearl's memory, to support research into all childhood cancers with poor outcomes. Here, Pearl’s family share her story...
One month before her 10th birthday, our fun-loving, kind, gentle, acrobatic, bright and beautiful daughter Pearl, was diagnosed with stage four Ewing's sarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.
Pearl dealt stoically with the cruel realities of her new life. She kept her trademark wit and sense of humour, and took a proactive role in her treatment, naming the tumours 'Vumps' in order to take control of them. We could not be prouder of her, or more grateful for her determination and zest for life.
Tragically the treatments she endured were simply not good enough to combat the disease and she died in our arms 11 months later.
She leaves a gaping hole in our family and community and her loss is felt every moment.
Children in Pearl's position have the odds stacked against them. Childhood cancer is extraordinarily badly funded. Despite the large number of cancer charity adverts featuring smiling bald children, less than 3% worldwide of the money raised for research goes to combat childhood cancer.
As a result very little headway has been made with the treatments available to children. There are some success stories and some childhood cancers now have excellent survival rates but many do not.
Pearl had Ewing's sarcoma, which is a crafty cancer that hides in the bones growing quickly and silently, often maturing and spreading to other parts of the body before being discovered and diagnosed. It was staggering for us to find that such a tiny slip of an apparently healthy girl had such an enormous melon-sized tumour hiding away inside her. We had absolutely no idea. This late diagnosis of course has a devastating impact on survival rates. The treatment available is not designed or even licenced for children but dates back to the 1960s.
In general, children need different treatments from adults, they get different types of cancer and their bodies are completely different.
The mechanism of many childhood cancers are not well understood, treatments lag terribly behind adult cancers and outcomes are particularly poor...
We have set up this fund to sponsor much-needed research into earlier diagnosis, more successful treatment and prevention of relapse of these tricky to fight cancers.
Please help us to spare other families from experiencing the tragedy that we live with every day.
Make a donation to #PearlPower
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Open an online fundraising page for #PearlPower
Set up a regular Direct Debit donation to #PearlPower
Research Projects Funded
Creating a new immunotherapy approach to fight aggressive medulloblastoma
How do leukaemia stem cells talk to the immune system in juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia?
Fundraising pages
Text CCLGPEARL to 70450 to donate £5.
CCLG will receive 100% of your donation. You may also be charged for one text message at your network’s standard or charity rate.
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 #PearlPower so that your donation is allocated to the correct fund.