Bibi - the daughter of a good friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with a very serious brain tumour, experimental treatment is being considered but is very expensive. The family is in mega fund raising mode and I’ve decided to help by signing up for the London-Brighton cycle this summer and participate in a number of their challenges  

The cause is especially important to me not only as a father of a 3 year old myself but because I lost my mum to the same type of brain tumour 4 years ago. It’s an unimaginably horrible thing go through for anyone, let alone a lovely young girl and her family. 

Please donate!

Some more about the cause

Beatriz, or 'Bibi',  is a gorgeous little cutie pie - just don't tell her that. She's also fierce as hell. Her favourite things are Paw Patrol, Pepperami sausages, picking fluff out from in between her toes and winding up her big sister. 

She keeps her amazing nurses on their toes and terrifies the consultants. "She's weird, wonderful and amazing - she wants to be the tooth fairy when she grows up. And she is genuinely one of the funniest people we know," says her mum, Laura.

At two and a half, Beatriz suddenly became very clingy and unhappy. Her parents thought it was just a phase. But she was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer that has a 40-50% chance of long-term survival.

Her family are raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for further treatment, either to get their daughter into remission or to try and keep the cancer away if treatment does go to plan.

Beatriz's story

Beatriz had already become really clingy by the time she had stopped eating. 

"We thought she was just being picky", says Laura. "When she had a fever for four weeks, we were told it was a recurring virus. When she refused to walk because her legs hurt, then we got really scared."

After weeks of trips to the doctors and A&E, they were called into a room at the Whittington Hospital and told the news that would turn their lives upside down. There was a lump and it was suspected neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer. 

"We went to Great Ormond Street Hospital the next day and started intensive chemotherapy within the week," continues Laura.

A year full of treatment

Since then Beatriz has been in hospital for nearly half of 2019, spending both her birthday and Christmas there. She's had hundreds of injections, countless general anaesthetics, endless chemotherapy drugs and lost all her amazing curly hair. 

She's due to start a new trial on the NHS at GOSH. But her future is uncertain. The trial is far from guaranteed to work and, even if Beatriz gets into remission, relapse rates are high and her parents will do everything they can to stop the cancer returning. This includes the possibility of a vaccine in New York.

Beatriz's fundraising campaign

Beatriz's family are raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for further treatment, either to get their daughter into remission or to try and keep the cancer away if treatment does go to plan.

"Having Solving Kids' Cancer, a specialist neuroblastoma charity, to help us is comforting. They are an amazing charity who help families throughout treatment and beyond, and endlessly push for more research into this disease. Any money we don't use will be used for research - to help other children. And that's important to us."

How you can help

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

To donate by text, send "BEATRIZ" 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 you'd like help supporting Beatrizs campaign, please get in touch with the fundraising team on 0207 284 0800 and fundraising@solvingkidscancer.org.uk

For Solving Kids' Cancer's terms and conditions around Journeys and Appeals, please visit https://www.solvingkidscancer.org.uk/terms-and-conditions