Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page to help raise money and awareness for Ward 15 of the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Lauren Foster is a very brave young girl who at the tender age of 10 has been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of cancer that only affects children. In fact, fewer than 60 children are diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in the UK each year, with most of them being younger than 10 years old.

‘Lauren’s Journey’ is the journey of this very brave girl, who at such a young age is overcoming the toughest of adversities. Lauren’s tumour has grown on the muscle at the back of her palate. Lauren has had 9 sessions of chemotherapy and a course of radiotherapy. However because of where Lauren’s tumour is, doctors felt that ‘Proton Therapy’ was a more appropriate treatment for Lauren. However, Proton Therapy is only available in either Florida or Oklahoma and Lauren has had to therefore travel for her treatment and stay in America for 10 weeks whilst she received treatment.

Since returning from America, Lauren has received one further block of chemotherapy. She was quite poorly after this and has therefore taken a little longer to recover. She gets tired easily and is being encouraged by her family to do as much as she can. She has two more blocks of chemotherapy to go and we will keep you updated with her progress.

 

Lauren’s Journey was set up by Lauren’s family to initially provide support, including financial assistance, to Lauren’s family in helping fund her journey through treatment and any other reasonable costs incurred by the family due to a result of this illness. Thanks to a lot of hard work by many, this has now been achieved. Emma, Lauren’s mother, is my cousin and Gregg is a very good friend. Obviously, this is something that is very close to all of my families hearts and once Gregg heard of the news, instantly offered to help in any way he could. Lauren’s mother has asked Gary and Gregg to raise money to to assist other children currently receiving treatment on the Oncology Ward/Ward 15 at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

It is heartbreaking to think that anyone has to go though this in their life, let alone an innocent, beautiful 10 year- old girl. By donating today, your money will greatly assist many other children who are effected by cancer and also the many other conditions that are treated on Ward 15 of Birmingham Children’s Hospital- be that now and in the future.