When I decided to apply for the marathon, I never actually thought
I’d get a place and running it in April 2023. However when I was applying I was adamant I wanted to raise money for a cancer charity. I am proud to be running for Children with cancer UK who are dedicated to fighting childhood cancer and keeping families together.  Cancer
affects 1 in 2 people which is a scary statistic on its own. My mum was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, my aunty was diagnosed with breast cancer and my cousin at the age of 15 was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. All who are cancer survivors.  Chloe has given me permission to share her childhood cancer journey.

Chloe’s Story.

After having various non-specific symptoms for a while and
numerous’ medical test Chloe was told she had chronic fatigue syndrome. However after experiencing excruciating sharp pain in her left side of the back she booked a GP appointment. During this appointment the doctor palpated her abdomen and felt something which he believed had to do with her pervious kidney surgery.
She was referred for an ultrasound scan ‘just to be safe’ which lead to the finding of a mass in her abdomen. Chloe was then referred to her GP and told she needed to see a paediatrician urgently.

 The following day Chloe carried on as normal and went to school to later receive a message from her mum saying she needed to go to the school reception as she needed to go to the hospital urgently. Over the next week Chloe had to undergo numerous tests; a CT scan, biopsy if the mass, bine marrow aspirations and a MIBG scan. Following this she was given the devastating news that she had paraspinal neuroblastoma with adverse biology and it was stage 3.

 At the time Chloe was only 15 and her consultant had to consult with other specialist to decide on a treatment protocol as this type of cancer was most common in children under the age of 5. It was decided that she would need high-risk protocol which included;
chemotherapy, surgery, high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue, radiotherapy and differentiation therapy. All the treatment Chloe received was intense and left her feeling very weak, having low blood counts, nausea/vomiting and the loss of her hair. Chloe had to have eight cycles of induction chemotherapy
and after a repeat CT scan to check the response she was told the tumour had not shrunk. Following this they decided to more her surgery forward, however the tumour was very close to nerve structures and was in her psoas muscle so removing it all could have affected her ability to walk.

On the 28 June 2010 Chloe had her surgery. They managed only
to remove around half of her tumour. After a week in hospital recovering from the surgery she was discharged home to later find out that the pathology report showed that although the tumour did not shrink it had worked to an extent. This meant she was able to complete the final two cycles of chemotherapy.

It was decided that Chloe would have MIBG therapy (a type of
internal radiotherapy) along with the chemotherapy. After having her stem cells harvest Chloe had her MIBG therapy which involved her staying in a lead lined room with limited contact from anyone. She was highly radioactive and was not able to have any home comforts in the room with her as it would be contaminated with the radiation and wouldn’t be able to come out. After having disease reassessment
scans which showed the tumour had shrunk by a third. She then went on to have 22 sessions of conventional external beam radiation.

The last stage of treatment which was differentiation therapy involved taking oral medication which lead her to experience extreme side effects leading to her being admitted to hospital.  Chloe medication was reduced and was stopped slightly early due to the way it was making her feel. Scans showed that the tumour had shrunk a little bit more and was roughly the size of a stretched tennis ball. Chloe had three monthly MRI scans for the first year, six monthly MRI scans for two years and yearly MRI scans for on year which all shown stable disease.

Chloe is left with long term side effects after all the treatment
she had to go through, During the treatment she started getting menopausal symptoms and after test was confirmed to be ovarian failure at 16 years old. She is now on hormone replacement therapy and has chronic nerve pain which at times can be difficult to control.

Despite everything Chloe was going through she completed her
GCSES, A-Levels and applied to university to study children’s nursing. In the summer of 2016 Chloe completed her three year course and qualified as a paediatric nurse. Most recently Chloe had published a book called ‘Beyond Fear is Hope’ which details her cancer journey and life beyond cancer.

Chloe is always fundraising and giving back to charities
which helped her and it is an honour for me to be running the London Marathon for Children with Cancer UK to fundraise and give back to them. 

Thank you for sponsoring and supporting me. I will be documenting my journey on my Instagram carly_health2020 so please go follow.