A mum has spoken of her “hell” as her youngest child has gone through six cycles of chemotherapy at the age of just THREE.
Little Esmé Lambert was just a year old when she was diagnosed with a rare, high-grade form of ependymoma – a tumour that arises in the tissue of the central nervous system.
The youngster underwent surgery – but, now aged three, Esmé is currently on her sixth of seven cycles of gruelling chemotherapy, and the family do not know what her survival prognosis will be.
Esmé’s mum Wendy Lambert, 33, from Swaffham, Norfolk, has now spoken out about how the family’s “world fell apart” when Esmé was diagnosed.
Speaking out to mark the start of Brain Tumour Awareness month in March, Wendy said their family has been “living through hell”.
She said: “Our world fell apart when we were told the news. Since then, we have been living through 18 months of hell and no-one knows how this is going to end.”
The family is working with Brain Tumour Research to raise awareness of the disease.
And the charity has released shocking new figures which reveal that one in three children who die of cancer are killed by brain tumours.
The disease is also responsible for one in four deaths of the under 25s, one in six of those under 40 and one in ten of those under 50.
Esmé, the youngest of four children, was originally misdiagnosed with what doctors thought could be a sickness bug or urinary tract infection, when she started vomiting regularly in the early hours of the morning.
Mum Wendy was convinced it was something more and, after the tot’s condition worsened, she went back to see a GP and was sent to A&E.
She said: “I was terrified there was something wrong with Esmé’s brain but was reassured that was unlikely.
“She underwent a whole battery of tests and eventually an MRI scan which revealed the tumour.”
Wendy added: “It is so scary and we constantly think ‘please let our family be one of the lucky ones’.”
Brain Tumour Research Chief Executive, Sue Farrington Smith MBE, has also spoken out about losing her niece to an aggressive brain tumour in 2001 – at just seven years old.
She said: “When my sister’s little girl, Alison Phelan, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in August 2000, we were shocked and horrified to learn that there was no cure.
“We lost her just 10 months later, three weeks before her eighth birthday.
“Twenty years on there is still a paucity of treatments for brain tumour patients.
“To think we continue to lose so many young people to this dreadful disease is deeply shocking.
“Unlike many other cancers, brain tumours are indiscriminate. They can affect anyone at any time, regardless of age, gender, race or lifestyle.
“Too little is known about the causes and that is why increased investment in research is vital if we are to improve outcomes for patients and, ultimately, find a cure.”
The charity says that brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.
However, historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to the devastating disease.
It is campaigning for an increase in the national investment in research into brain tumours to £35 million per year.
It is also fundraising to create a sustainable network of brain tumour research centres in the UK.