Three year old wins cancer battle to give Alnwick parents the best possible Christmas present

Their three-year-old daughter, Willow, is on the road to recovery from a rare form of cancer after an 18-month battle.

Her year-long course of chemotherapy has finished and she recently rang the bell to mark the end of her treatment at Newcastle RVI.

"She’s doing really well and we’ve been able to look forward to Christmas,” said her dad, Graeme.

“We’ve always tried to make the best of things, especially at this time of year, but it was difficult last year because she looked really ill. She looks fantastic now!”

Willow was diagnosed with stage four rhabdomyosarcoma in May 2019, and within days she had to undergo an operation and started chemotherapy.

She also underwent radiotherapy and lost her hair before the great news came through in December 2019 that the cancer was in remission.

Since then she has had fortnightly trips to the RVI for maintenance chemotherapy through her chest-line and every day at home as oral medicine.

There has been the odd rough patch, such as when she had sepsis in January, but Willow has continued to make steady progress.

Her mum, Karla, said: “She's been the most amazing girl and smiled through it all.”

She will have a CT scan and MRI after Christmas.

“We will be then told of all her results but we are all very positive about this,” said Karla.

“Willow hopefully will start nursery in January, something she is looking forward to as she loves playing and has missed out on a lot of this due to treatment.

"Now chemotherapy is finished Willow will also be allowed to do normal things, like go to a farm or zoo, something she was unable to do previously because of chemotherapy. She has such love for animals.”

Graeme had to take time out his work as head chef at The Tankerville Arms in order to spend quality time with Willow and to care for her full-time along with her three brothers, Ollie, Joey, and Louie.

A fund-raising campaign set up by Graeme’s brother, Will, raised over £6,000 to help the family through the period.

"We'd like to thank the general public who have been on this journey with us,” said Karla.

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