Seven year old Poppy loves going to school, meeting new people and anything to do with Rapunzel, Elsa or Moana. Poppy loves to pretend to be the "Nurse in charge" at the hospital, helping with making beds and taking observations, and even has her own ID card! She wants to be a nurse or play leader when she gets older.
At just four years old, Poppy was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer that has a 40-50% chance of long-term survival at diagnosis.
Poppy's family started to fundraise in case she needed to access potentially life-saving treatment not available through the NHS. While they are not fundraising actively currently, Poppys campaign remains open for the same purpose. Treatment not available through the NHS can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In April 2020 Poppys little brother Oscar was born and around this time she started complaining of pain in her legs, was increasingly more tired and lethargic and gradually started eating less. She became clingy and depressed which the family put down to jealousy and confusion as she'd just become a big sister and the world was in lockdown due to a global pandemic.
As her leg pain got worse Poppys mum Claire eventually contacted the GP and had a telephone appointment due to Covid restrictions. A blood test was arranged at Bedford hospital in which an iron deficiency was confirmed. A few days later the family were told their GP wanted to see Poppy in person as he was concerned after reviewing her blood test results in more detail.
After checking her over, they were then sent to see a paediatrician at Bedford hospital straight away for more tests and scans. A chest x-ray finally revealed a large tumour at the back left-hand side of Poppy's chest cavity, wrapped around her heart and pushing against one of her lungs. We were told straight away it was cancer.
Our world came crashing down around us in seconds, unable to comprehend what was happening. We refused to believe it at first, insisting that our little girl who's always been the picture of health couldn't possibly have cancer, says Poppys parents, Claire and Ross.
Poppy and her dad, Ross, were sent in an ambulance that night to Addenbrooke's whilst Claire stayed at home with three-month-old Oscar.
I didn't sleep a wink that night, it was the worst night of my life, says Claire.
A biopsy and scans revealed that the cancer had spread all over her body and Poppy was officially diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma on 24th July 2020, just weeks before her 5th birthday.
Since her diagnosis in July 2020, Poppy has endured 14 rounds of chemotherapy with side effects such as sickness and hair loss. She has had one of her ovaries removed and preserved for the future and a stem cell harvest for future use. She's had countless general anaesthetics, injections, bone marrow biopsies, CT and MIBG scans and relies on tube feeds as her main source of nutrition as her appetite has decreased and she often feels nauseous.
Chemotherapy cleared a lot of the cancer cells but not enough to move onto the next stage of treatment. Due to Poppy having refractory disease, she enrolled on the MiNivAn clinical trial at UCLH and Southampton Hospital with the hope of clearing even more of the cancer cells.
Poppy responded well to the trial, which reduced 33 spots of disease down to just three. Once she completed the trial, Poppy went back onto the standard frontline treatment path and had surgery, high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. In December 2022, end of treatment scans showed that Poppy had no evidence of active disease.
Poppy's family started to fundraise in case she needed to access potentially life-saving treatment not available through the NHS. While they are not fundraising actively currently, Poppys campaign remains open for the same purpose. Treatment not available through the NHS can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
We will do anything we can to give Poppy the bright future that she deserves, says Claire.
There are many ways you can help Poppy: by making a personal donation; by sharing her story on Facebook, holding a fundraising event; getting sponsored to take on a challenge.
To donate by text, send POPPYB followed by any whole amount up to £20 to 70085. This will cost your donation plus your standard network charge. It won't matter if you leave a space before the number, if you include a £ sign or whether you use upper or lower case.
You can make a donation via this page.
If you'd like to help to support Poppys campaign, please get in touch with the fundraising team on 0207 284 0800 and fundraising@solvingkidscancer.org.uk
Please note the total amount of donations displayed on this page is the fundraising total for Poppy's campaign.
Funds raised will go towards helping Poppy and herfamily. If Poppy no longer needs the funds or is in remission five years post the end of successful treatment, the funds will be used to support other children and families affected by neuroblastoma through our activities. For children with high-risk neuroblastoma, like Poppy, the survival rate is much lower than other childhood cancers. Upon relapse, this rate reduces even further.
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