I and Dave are doing Rough Runner on Saturday 16th June 2018 and raising money for Bodie. Bodie is our cousins granddaughter and is currently being treated in Germany with proton beam therapy.

A few days after Christmas 2016, Bodie was diagnosed with a brain tumour at 10 months, this was after 6 trips to our local A&E department and GP within a 4 week period. Bodie started with symptoms of sickness and constant tiredness which rapidly progressed into her losing the ability to crawl, sit up or even support her own head. The 6th time we arrived at our A&E department, a locum doctor checked the reflexes in her legs and suggested we get an ultrasound of her brain. This revealed an ‘abnormality’ and we were transferred by ambulance to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, who then rushed her for a MRI scan. The next morning we were then told the heart-breaking news that she a brain tumour big enough to occupy one fifth of her skull.

Bodie’s first surgery was on New Years Eve to relieve pressure in her skull and 4 days later she had further brain surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible. Sadly after 9 hours, the neurosurgeons could only manage to safely remove approximately half of the tumour. Two weeks after the surgery we were given Bodie’s official Cancer diagnosis, she has a Grade 3 Anaplastic Posterior Fossa Ependymoma. Bodie then endured 12 months of Chemotherapy which has worked far better than her consultant had previously thought it would. As well as this, Bodie has undergone another 2 surgeries in February 2018 and the small remainder of the tumour is inoperable as it is in her brain stem.

Bodie is now 2 years old and is currently in Germany receiving Proton Beam Therapy to treat the remainder of the tumour. Unfortunately, the NHS were unable to provide the funds for this treatment so we have raised the money for the initial costings ourselves, through fundraising and a loan, as this had to be paid before the treatment could start.

In addition to this, we now have to raise money for the additional medicine and scans that Bodie has received so far, and we will be invoiced for this at the end of the overall treatment. This does not include the cost of any travel or accommodation whilst in Germany.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Bodie’s story, if you can help in anyway it would give Bodie a better chance at beating her Cancer and living a full life.