KATELYN YVONNE DONOVAN

25 June 1996 - 9 December 2010

The first photo you see is a picture of our beautiful daughter Katelyn,  three weeks before her 13th birthday. As you can see she looks happy, content and carefree.

In June 2008, whilst on holiday we noticed that Katelyn had developed a slight gait in her left leg. On our return home we went to the doctors for a check-up but nothing of concern was raised.

Katelyn remained active at school and in her netbell teams and she managed to joke about the limp (we thought it might be a case of laziness) but as it continued to get worse we took her back to her local GPs for second opinion.

On the 29^th June, Katelyn and I walked down to the top of our road to our GPs surgery. We did not return home again for two weeks.

Katelyn was rushed from the doctors office to our local hospital for assessment by a neurosurgeon. He ordered an emergency MRI. Her dad and I waited all day and all night for the news to come..and it did, after midnight we were told that a dark shadow had showed up on her scan and that she would be transferring to Great Ormond Street for brain surgery to remove a tumour.

It was only possible to remove 80% of the tumour which we were informed was a highly aggressive pnet tumour. She would have two more surgeries within the month resulting in part of her skull being removed to stop an infection that she had managed to acquire along the way.

Intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed. Katelyn was often sick but complained little. She struggled to come to terms with every treatment and was so relieved on the days she would be leaving hospital to come back to the normality of her home.

She lost her hair, her appetite, and her whole social structure but still retained her spirit. She had a great sense of humour and refused to believe that she could be beaten by any illness when she had so much to live for. So did we.

In January 2010 we were told that despite everything Katelyn’s treatments had failed to stop the cancer. That we should go home as a family and spend whatever quality time we had left with her. And we did, everyday.

In March 2009 Katelyn was still strong, and she let us know that she wanted to continue her fight for life. She was enrolled in a clinical trial at the Royal Marsden in Surrey. For six months, every twenty-one days we would venture up to the hospital where Katelyn would be put on a drip for just over three days at a time. We thought we had been given a miracle cure as six months passed without further tumour growth.

It was not to last and in July 2010 we were informed during a routine scan that several more lesions had appeared.

We took Katelyn home, prayed for time and wrote to hospitals all over the world to help us. 

Our miracle did not come and our beloved daughter Katelyn passed away at home on 9th December 2010.

To date Katelyn has raised over £1,000 for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumor Trust, which is the largest dedicated brain tumour charity in the UK. We would now like to raise the same amount for the Indee Rose Trust, which is a charity that provides Treasure Boxes to children who have been hospitalised whilst receiving treatment for a brain or spinal tumour.

Please help us raise money for this wonderful charity that managed to put a smile on our faces during the worst possible time.

In remembrance of Katelyn Donovan.

Thank you.