We recently received the heartbreaking news that our gorgeous little two-year-old niece - Gracie has Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

Gracie first became unwell in January and was taken to the hospital by her parents, Helen and Danny, with flu-like symptoms. She was initially discharged, but at home quickly deteriorated, losing the ability to walk, and developing a concerning rash. Helen and Danny took her back to the hospital and received the devastating ALL diagnosis. Gracie was immediately transferred to specialist care in Leeds where diagnostics and treatment were started straight away.

Only a few days before she became unwell Gracie had been her active, bubbly, feisty little 2-year-old self, dancing and playing with her older brothers and playing mum to her new born little brother. The progression of this cruel disease came as a devastating shock to all of Gracie’s family and friends, especially her parents who were initially unknown of the prognosis whilst they awaited numerous tests and results. Through blood tests, scans and bone marrow extractions, Gracie was found to have over 90% leukaemia cells in her bones which caused multiple spinal fractures meaning Gracie was unable to walk or move around. Gracie commenced an intense 29-day treatment plan, including aggressive chemo to eradicate as much of the leukaemia cells as possible. At the end of the first stage, Gracie’s leukaemia cells had expectedly reduced to 0.01%, which puts her into the intermediate risk category. Although we’d hoped to receive the better news that Gracie would be low-risk, this was some positive news that the whole family welcomed with open arms.

The diagnosis has been very difficult for Helen and Danny and their three other children Flynn, Noah, and baby Theo. However, they’ve had to remain strong and continue life as normal as possible for all four of their children. As well as support from family and friends, Helen and Danny have huge praise and gratitude for a charity called Candlelighters who have not only helped them come to terms with the diagnosis, but have spent time with Gracie and her brothers, offering guidance, support, and educating her brothers in a child-friendly way about Gracie’s diagnosis. Candlelighters also invest in vital research to improve the outcomes and lives of children with cancer and to try and find a cure for children’s cancer. Both Helen and Danny are so thankful for Candlelighters and wish for fundraising to be donated to help the charity so they can help many other families in such sad circumstances.

Gracie is continuing treatment and unfortunately still spending a lot of time in the hospital due to ongoing treatment and having a compromised immune system, meaning she is more susceptible to serious infections and requiring urgent antibiotics. Her cancer treatment has also had to be paused at times due to her being neutropenic. Also being a 2-year-old girl she has had
many return trips and procedures to replace frequent accidental losses of her NG tubes and Hickman line. However, Gracie’s pain is currently under control with strong pain medication, and she has recently started walking again. She has also been donated a beautiful wig from the Princess Trust to replace the hair she has lost, which she enjoys playing dress up in. It’s lovely for the family to start seeing Gracie getting back to being her playful self again and seeing her smiley face.

In honour of Gracie’s parents' wish as a group, we are running a half marathon in Manchester in October to raise money for their chosen charity, Candlelighters. We would be so grateful for any donations made, no matter the amount and thank you in advance for your kind donations that will help many other children and their families. Most of us have never even tried on a pair of running trainers before, but we all want to show our support for Gracie, and we welcome anyone else who wants to come and get involved or show support at the finish line. Hopefully, Gracie will be well enough to also be waiting at the finish line.

As family and friends are already aware, we hope to do something special for Gracie too and book her a nice little trip away once she is feeling up to it. We hope this will help her to forget the trauma she has been through during her treatment and restore some normality with her brothers and parents. If any family or friends would like to contribute or split their charity donation, you can do this on the following page: - 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/gracie-mae-588

Thank you again for your contributions and support.

You can follow future updates on Gracie’s treatment progress on this link.