With your support, Maya accessed the vaccine trial in February 2019 and completed it in 2020. She remains in remission.

Maya is a strong, stubborn girl, who knows what she wants and loves nothing more than playing with her baby dolls, or being outdoors and jumping on her trampoline. As the youngest child, she likes to boss her siblings around and dreams of becoming a paediatric doctor when she grows up.

But tragically, when she was only three years old, Maya was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with stage four high-risk neuroblastoma, a devastating and aggressive childhood cancer that affects only around 100 children in the UK each year.

Shes been through so much treatment to get well again but her battle with cancer is far from over. When high-risk neuroblastoma returns, the chances of long-term survival drop to less than 10%.

Mayas family have been fundraising with Solving Kids Cancer to access a clinical trial in New York that could help keep her cancer away. Unfortunately, time has not been on Mayas side. Treatment was required to begin within six months of finishing immunotherapy and 45 days of scans, which for Maya was 25th February 2019, and the family were still some way short of their target.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the Charity took the decision to set aside reserve funds to cover the shortfall needed for Maya to begin treatment. In total the clinical trial consists of five trips to New York over the course of a year for treatment, plus a series of eight assessment scans that continue for another year.

We know that a childs best chance of beating neuroblastoma is when they are fighting it for the first time and Maya could have lost the opportunity to access this trial.

In June 2020 Mayas fundraising target was revised down for a second time. This was in no small part down to the commitment of Mayas family to make personal sacrifices in finding the least expensive options and cost saving opportunities at every stage of treatment. We would like to commend Mayas family for all of their efforts. All of this has meant that Mayas latest revised target is £85,000.

We continue to be encouraged by the fundraising activity for Mayas campaign and the commitment of all involved to continue to urgently fundraise, to help enable Maya to complete the treatment and to replenish our reserves to allow us to be there for the next child who needs our help. Unfortunately, our resources are limited, but we will always do whatever we can to help every child and family who find themselves in a challenging situation.

Thanks to Maya's generous supporters, in September 2020 Maya's campaign reached it's target of £85,000.

Mayas story

There were virtually no signs at all, just unexplained lethargy and a persistent fever which was always seen as a viral infection, says Dellanie.

After ten weeks of uncertainty surrounding Mayas health, Dellanie and Terry heard the words that would change their lives. Your child has cancer.

Maya was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma in her left adrenal gland.

It was so overwhelming and gut-wrenching. Every parents worst nightmare. We were told if her tumour had been left untreated that she would have only had a few weeks to live, continues Dellanie.

Treatment

Over a 20-month period, Maya endured ten cycles of chemotherapy, stem cell harvest, surgery, stem cell transplant, high-dose chemotherapy, radiotherapy, differentiation therapy and immunotherapy. She also had countless injections, blood and platelet transfusions and general anaesthesia. She really went through the mill, and her beautiful brown hair fell out.

Everything in our world had turned upside down, recalls Terry. I felt if she goes, Im going with her.

Mayas mum, Dellanie, describes the time as harrowing. As well as mucositis, Maya suffered from haemorrhaging, horrendous nosebleeds and VOD (veno-occlusive disease) of the liver, says Dellanie. She and Terry suffered as parents too.

We didnt realise then how completely exhausted we were as parents. Just imagine the pain of watching your child go through this; putting on a brave face for your child when you dont always feel that strong, says Dellanie.

Fortunately, the family had great support. We are forever indebted to all the wonderful people, and the excellent NHS team looking after our precious girl Maya, says Dellanie.

Next steps

Maya has recently come to the end of her frontline treatment, and despite hot spots evident on her October 2018 scans, doctors dont think it is active disease. This means that theres no further treatment planned in the UK.

Knowing how aggressive Mayas cancer is and the high relapse rates as oncology parents, we are not comfortable accepting a wait-and-see approach, says Dellanie.

Mayas family are hoping Maya can access the Bivalent Vaccine clinical trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, to try to increase the chances of the cancer staying away. This treatment is not available in the UK.

We are overwhelmed with gratitude to family, friends and the community, who continue to show their support and love for our family, say Dellanie and Terry. We shall continue to fight. We are all warriors together to beat this childhood cancer that has started to rob Maya of her childhood during the past two years. Weve got this, folks!

Thanks to Maya's generous supporters, in September 2020 Maya's campaign had raised their target amount of £85,000.

How you can help

There are many ways you can help Maya: by making a personal donation; holding a fundraising event; getting sponsored to take on a challenge.

To donate by text, send MAYA followed by any whole amount up to £20 to 70085. This will cost your donation plus your standard network charge. It wont matter if you leave a space before the number, if you include a £ sign or whether you use upper or lower case.

If youd like to help to support Mayas campaign, please contact our fundraising team on 0207 284 0800 or fundraising@solvingkidscancer.org.uk