Donate by text message to Kendal's appeal by texting KEND52 and your amount £1 - £10 to 70070

Kendal was born in March 2010, our first girl made our family complete. Her big brothers Mason, Lewis and Karson adored Kendal instantly and showed her off eagerly to every visitor that came. Kendal grew so fast, just as her brothers had, and soon we were watching her smile and crawl and we came to know and love her sun shine little personality and her beaming smile. By the time Kendal was two she could talk very well and would tell us all about Hello Kitty even sing along to Peppa Pig. Then one day Kendal told us her tummy hurt and she cried when she needed to poo. Days went by and our bright little girl seemed so quiet and withdrawn but our GP reassured us it was nothing to worry about and constipation can do this. Days turned into weeks but even our local hospital looked at Kendal and sent us home again. For too long now I had watched Kendal withdraw and I was sure there was something seriously wrong. I didn't want to waste the GP's time but I didn't know what else to do so I took her back and cried with her in the waiting room. This time our GP was worried and he sent us straight to A&E, although I was scared and shaking I was just relieved that we could finally get Kendal well again.

At the hospital tests were done, Kendal even had an ultrasound but before we knew it we were sent home again to wait for an appointment for a CT scan. That night I curled up with Kendal and tried not to let my tears splash her skin. The day of the scan arrived and we nervously waited to hear the results, a million things had gone through my mind, but not what we then heard, nothing had prepared me for the words that fell from his mouth that day... "We have found a tumour... your daughter has Cancer".

As the walls crushed in on me time seemed to not make any sense, everything moved so fast, an ambulance was called and my mind raced with questions but sheer terror prevented me from speaking. There seemed to be a hundred people telling me things all at once but with moments in between that were the loneliest in my life, I clutched Kendal tight and tried to make sense of it all, but all I could think was they must have made a mistake. This thought gave me some comfort and by the time we arrived at Leeds General I had convinced myself that the tests would show everything was OK, but as the consultant approached us with Kendal's new test results my heart sank and he confirmed the worst, Kendal did have Cancer, and worse than that, it was a terrible type of aggressive Cancer called Neuroblastoma, and it had spread to every bone in her body, Kendal was fighting for her life.

Chemotherapy began straight away, I cant explain how it feels to watch chemo drip into your baby and how frightened yet grateful you are for the help everyone is giving you and the chance you are getting to save your child. The days are long though and the nights are even longer and I longed for someone to tell me what was going to happen and that everything would be OK. We researched online but the more we learned about Neuroblastoma the more helpless I felt, to learn that even if Kendal got through her treatment this time she would have an 80% chance of it coming back made me sick to my stomach but when I realised that there is no protocol here for relapsed Neuroblastoma I knew I had to learn more. Then I met another mum who told me about a charity called Families Against Neuroblastoma and how they could help. Through their support group we learned about other children and what their parents were doing to help their child. We learned about other treatments that were not currently available on the NHS and we wanted that chance for Kendal too. Although there was no way in the world we could afford them, with some treatments costing more than £500,000.00 we felt positive that there was something we could do to help give Kendal a better chance, and so we launched an appeal.

We desperately need your help! If everyone who heard about Kendal gave just £1 and asked their friends to do the same, we would have the money in no time. Kendal is coming to the end of her treatment here and there are new treatments available in places like America that can improve Kendal's chances of never having to fight this monster again, ask yourself, what would you do if it was your child? Kendal has shown us just how strong she is and just how much life she has bursting inside her, she still adores Hello Kitty and sings along to Peppa Pig once more, all she wants is to jump in muddy puddles again and play with her big brothers, all we want is for her to have the chance... please help us give it to her.

Thank you is not enough.

Laine and Stuart, Kendal's Mummy and Daddy.

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