Immy's Story

After several years of IVF Kathryn & Lester fell pregnant with Imogen & her twin sister Angel. Sadly Angel became very ill and at 31wks passed away. Imogen battled on until arriving at 38wks.

On 30 August 2016 their world was turned upside down. After scans & tests Immy was diagnosed with an aggressive malignant grade 4 brain tumour called a Medulloblastoma and had a 9hr operation to remove this. The surgery left a slither as it was too risky to remove.

Due to the surgery Immy had to learn how to walk, move, smile, grip, speak and swallow. On top of this she needed further emergency surgery to insert a shunt to help relive the pressure in her brain. Intensive Chemo started in October (with hope of a cure). The chemo slowed down her rehab and it was a long while till they heard a whisper of "Mummy" & "Daddy".

Just before Christmas they got wonderful news that she had beaten the tumour but she still needed the chemo. Immy was quite ill over Christmas, losing weight and looking worse and worse. In January she had her stem cell harvest for her high dose chemo in March, but soon her health deteriorated. Sadly an MRI showed that although the original tumour had not returned, the cancer now covered the whole of her brain and she has some in her spinal chord too. They gave her weeks or days to live and they moved to a hospice to help her through the last part of the journey. Immy continued to be her usual brave self.

Immy passed away in Mummy's arms on Monday 23rd January 2017 only 5 months after her original diagnosis. She was so very brave and such a wonderful person.

Kathryn & Lester want to raise awareness of brain tumours & the misdiagnosis that often happens. Kathryn took Immy to the GP 5 times until someone listened to her concerns and sent her to hospital. It might not have saved her but it might save someone else from going through this horrible journey.