Your support made a difference to Tilly. This is her story.
Tilly’s dad Jason, says: “Around Christmas in 2020, Tilly started saying she was getting headaches and pain in her eyes. As it was during Covid, all her lessons were online and she was doing her schoolwork on her laptop.”
Jason says: “The test came back okay but I told the optician that there must be something wrong. They rebooked her in for another test with eyedrops, which gave them a better view of the eye. That was booked for mid-February, but by that point her eye sight had become much worse. She wasn’t eating and was going to bed really early every night.”
The optician couldn’t work out what was wrong, so they took a photo of the back of her eyes and spotted something abnormal in her optic nerves. “They said we needed to go to A&E and have it checked, as they weren’t sure what it meant.”
"I had to tell Tilly, which as you would guess, wasn’t easy. But I felt she needed to know the truth."
After the eye casualty had performed a number of tests, Tilly was sent for an MRI. Jason continues, “The doctor took me into a side room and told me they had found a mass in her brain. At that stage they still weren’t sure what it meant but feared it was cancer. I had to tell Tilly, which as you would guess, wasn’t easy. But I felt she needed to know the truth.”
Tilly’s tumour is inoperable because of its location in her brain and she started chemotherapy the following week. It was a gruelling process for both Tilly and her family, but it worked.
Tilly still struggles with her physical and mental health, but she is back at school and feeling much better overall. She even participated in the Derby 3k with her family to raise funds for CBTRC.
With your support, we can continue to strive to discover more effective and kinder treatments for these currently devastating cancers; helping children like Tilly live fuller and healthier lives.
