After being told our peaches was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia we were in complete shock! Her leukaemia presented itself as a tumour behind her left ear which caused paralysis down her left side of her face and caused damage to her eyes. Her body was in shock and creating excess spinal fluid causing her to have lots of fluid on her brain. This meant peaches had a lot of pressure in her head which was absolute agony for her. 

Our journey has been a rollercoaster from day 1 and watching our daughter start chemotherapy just two months before her 2nd birthday has been heartbreaking! It has been so unbearable to see the pain she has been in and have faith in the treatment. She has endured several operations, NG tube insertion, countless blood and platelet transfusions and has always been her funny, beautiful and out going self throughout. She has been unable to see her family and brother because of covid restrictions but has adapted to the hospital life so well and has successfully made all the nurses and drs fall in love with her. Due to her leukaemia being so aggressive her treatment is also very aggressive meaning she is in hospital for 5 weeks at a time with 1 week break between rounds. She has had her 2nd birthday, Christmas and new year in hospital.

Even though the past 5 months have personally been the most challenging ever in my life I am grateful for the support from our amazing family + friends, our new friends we have met in on ward 84 who are all an inspiration and of course the nurses and drs at manchester children’s hospital.

I really want to share more of our journey as we have experienced extreme sadness but have also had some really special times together during this journey and I know I will never take a night home all together for granted.

Peaches has one more round of chemotherapy to have then hopefully we can start thinking about the future. 

I’ve decided to take on some challenges this year as running for me has been my escapism. I’m taking on 4 ultra marathons, 1 marathon and 2 half marathons from July onwards to raise awareness for such an incredible charity, as childhood cancer is unfortunately not as rare as you would think and needs more research! 

Children with Cancer UK actively raise and invest money for vital specialist research to save the lives of every child with cancer and keep their family together. Our vision is a world where every child diagnosed with cancer gets to ring their end of cancer treatment bell.