Running for my little smiling dancer.
Neata Simpson is raising money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity
Story
Neath is truly the happiest, craziest, smiliest girl you’ll ever meet. In April 22 she went to Skegness Champions and had the most amazing time and danced the best she’d ever danced placing 1st in slow dance, 2nd in pairs fast dance, 3rd in Street and 4th in fast. She was loving life!
But the week after Skegness she discovered a lump under her armpit, the next few weeks and month saw her becoming lethargic, struggling to dance and just generally feeling very unwell. After several Drs appointments, referrals, blood tests and much more she was eventually diagnosed with an incredibly rare form of cancer. Peripheral T Cell Non Hodgkin Lymphoma (otherwise not specified) which means it sits in its own little box, it is a lymphoma that is acting like Leukaemia. So much so that there are no other case studies to compare her diagnosis to. However, they were treating it like leukaemia and she would have been on a 2 1/2 year treatment plan.
Neath was 4 months into treatment and through many highs and lows she continued to smile and even returned back to dancing. So I have decided to take on the challenge of the London Marathon to raise money for BCH so they can continue to support amazing children like Neath on the oncology ward who are going through gruelling chemotherapy treatments. Any donations will be gratefully received.
However in November we discovered that Neath had relapsed and was no longer responding to treatment. She was put on an adult treatment plan with the hope of getting her into remission and then forward onto a stem cell transplant. After one cycle of this treatment her bloods haven’t recovered, and after 3 long weeks in hospital with persistent fevers Neath was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease (HLH). whilst being treated for this Neath ended up in ICU over the festive period. Thankfully BCH worked their magic and after 12 days she was back on the oncology ward on New Years Eve. Neath remains in hospital at BCH and we are hopeful the team here will get her to where she needs to be. Having experienced the generosity of the Oncology and ICU staff over the festive period I feel honoured to be running for this charity.