Ellen

Ellen’s story

Ellen initially did really well with her potty training in August 2017, but she suddenly started to suffer from constipation. Her parents took her to the GP who said that this was a common complaint in children when toilet training and it should rectify itself. But by Halloween, Ellen was rushed to A&E in a lot of pain, where she was diagnosed with a kidney infection and given antibiotics. It helped initially but then she got worse again. 

After taking Ellen to the GP and having bloods taken the GP rang back to say she wanted Ellen’s bloods repeated, and an ultrasound of her tummy to check her kidneys. The radiologist wasn’t happy with the results and Ellen had an MRI scan at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. The oncologist came out during her scan to say to her parents that while they would have to wait for biopsy results to be sure, he was fairly certain that Ellen had neuroblastoma. The next day she had surgery to insert her central line, a biopsy of her tumour, a lumbar puncture and a bone marrow biopsy. 

Ellen had such a tough time in those first few months with infections after every chemotherapy cycle, so she spent most of her time in hospital on antibiotics. She suffered with constant nosebleeds because her platelets were so low. She lost a lot of weight early on in her treatment so needed to be fed by tube.  

Thankfully, the disease responded to the chemotherapy, and Ellen had her surgery to remove as much of her tumour as possible on 23rd May 2018. It was wrapped around many blood vessels in her tummy, which made the surgery difficult and long, with Ellen spending 13 hours in theatre. She then spent a week in intensive care because she had fluid on her lungs and sepsis. 

Ellen completed high-dose chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and five cycles of immunotherapy, showing no evidence of the disease in her end of treatment scans. Thanks to the incredible support for her fundraising campaign, Ellen was able to begin the bivalent vaccine clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York in June 2019, in the hope of reducing the chance of relapse. 

Ellen completed the trial in July 2020. She remains clear of disease, has started school and is enjoying life.  

_{Solving Kids' Cancer UK's children's fundraising campaigns} 

_{Funds raised will go towards helping Ellen and her family. If Ellen no longer needs the funds or is in remission five years post the end of successful treatment, the funds will be used to support other children and families affected by neuroblastoma through our activities. For children with high-risk neuroblastoma, like Ellen, the survival rate is much lower than other childhood cancers. Upon relapse, this rate reduces even further.}