A mother has described the ‘heartbreak’ of watching her daughter suffer both cancer and its debilitating treatment.
Abbie Myers, 37, from Croxley Green, had her life turned upside down when her daughter Bella, 7, was diagnosed with leukaemia in November 2014 at the age of just three.
Bella was sent to Great Ormond Street Hospital and endured a year of treatments that took a toll on her body, only for her to relapse a year later.
After the relapse it was thought she would not survive unless she had a bone marrow transplant.
To prepare for this she had radiotherapy and chemotherapy, after which she had to live in isolation for three months with a feeding tube attached to her stomach.
Bella lost her hair because of the treatment in 2015, so Abbie decided to cut her own hair off.
She said: “When she was diagnosed and was receiving treatment, she started losing her hair straight away.
“She had the most gorgeous red auburn hair. It came out in handfuls. It broke my heart.
“I had really long hair down to my hips, so I shaved all mine off to raise money for Great Ormond Street and I wanted to do it for Bella in solidarity.”
Abbie then decided to push herself further and started running marathons to raise money for the charity Children with Cancer UK.
Children with Cancer helps to fund research into children’s cancers and has funded some of Bella’s treatment.
Abbie said: “During this time it was really horrific, and I didn’t know how to cope, and I thought to help I’d run the first London marathon in 2015.
“I used to leave her bedside, do my run and then come straight back.
“Since Bella had bad side effects from her treatments, I ran the marathon so nobody else would have to suffer like her.”
Abbie ran her second marathon in 2017, raising £6,000 for Children with Cancer UK and has now entered the New York marathon in November to fundraise again for the charity.
Her fundraising efforts to Children with Cancer will also help keep families together as the charity offers them fun days out to help relieve some of the stress they are experiencing.
To donate go to
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/abbie-stanwix3.
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