Chloeys Dream Holiday Wish!
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My name is Chloey Marshall, I am currently a 16 year old teenage girl, battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia for the 3rd time.
This page was set up by myself, Chloey with help from my mother Natalie and sister Kelly.
Could you help with raising funds?
Basically my dream is to be sent off on a dream holiday of my choice in which I have chosen to have two weeks at an all inclusive water park in Magaluf as soon as I'm well, finished all treatment and able to finally fly abroad but funding this ourselves isn't as easy as you think so that is why we asking for some help.
Since being a teenager with a life changing illness it's been hard for me because I can't do what a so called "normal" teenager my age would be doing for example - going out to meet friends, going to college or school, going to large shopping centres, going to concerts and theme parks, but there's always been one specific dream I've have always had and that dream is to fly abroad with my 28 year older sister, Kelly. Let our hair down and enjoy a nice sunny holiday together.
Due to being seriously ill since 2011, aged 10years old. I haven't even been able to do many things as such and haven't been able to spend time away. This is why I wish to go on my dream holiday abroad to somewhere hot, relaxing & sunny.
Id be so grateful if you could help make my dream come true but not only help make my dream come true but l also think all of my close family such as my mum, my brother, my sister and close people who have helped out so far should have the right to be treated to. Treating them would be by going on a small holiday, somewhere closer to home.
They have been there for me and are always helping me out as much as they can so once we have raised as much funds as we can, we are not certain as to where we would like to go yet but we all would like to spend some quality family time together somewhere nice as we have never be able to spend a lot of time together. It won't be anywhere abroad as my mum nor my brother will get on an aeroplane and fly anymore.
My mum has never let me be left alone a single night in any hospital during my overnight stays, she has always been there by my side. If she needed a break to go home over the weekend to see my brother she always managed to sort something out so that someone would be there to stay with me, she gives me my regular medications and keeps everything on track, she has constantly been on the ball with things I've needed to have done or needed to do since all of this started and still to this day is. She is defiantly one in a million and I couldn't be more grateful or thank her enough for everything she has done for me, she deserves the world if not more, and if I could give it to her, I most certainly would. I love you mum.
My sister has helped out a lot with the hospital stays so that my mum could get short breaks here and there from staying with me. This mainly was during the first diagnosis and relapse. My sister has also set up the savings account to save for the money raised for our two holidays despite going through a very upsetting tough time herself after having complications during a twin pregnancy.
My brother has been left to fend for himself so much as well as been left responsible for the care of my pet Chihuahua named Oreo. This has happened during every hospital stay and visit that both me and mum have had to attended and because of this happening for so long and so often it has caused him some problems of his own, he had to come out of his last year in education and some other personal problems came about so for all the stress, worry and problems this has caused these are the reasons as to why they deserved to be treated just as much.
Here is my story so far:
I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia on the 17th of June 2011 and was referred to The Royal Marsden in Sutton.
I underwent 2years,4months, 1week and 2days of treatment and the average treatment for a girl with this type of cancer is 2years, 2months. At the beginning of my treatment I had a portacath fitted so I could receive my chemotherapy, have bloods taken, given antibiotics as well as having any blood products I required / other medication.
I pretty much sailed through the treatment, not many side effects hit me but I did hit a rather frightening stage at one point, basically a couple of the chemos that were on my protocol clashed after both were given too close together which caused me to have two minor strokes both effecting the left side of my face and upper body due to having these strokes I was admitted to St. Georges Hospital in Tooting, London due to this and thankfully I was very lucky and able to sleep them off over the course of 2 nights sleep.
I also had encountered something called 'reduced shortening fraction' on my heart, this was a rare side effect of one of the chemotherapies, this was previously known to have happened to other patients, but it did eventually right itself.
My end of treatment was on the 26th October 2013 and within months after finishing treatment, I was able to have my portacath removed; then on I managed to get back on track to start living a 'normal' teenage life seeing as I was now 13.
I attended school part time, I was going out with my friends, I was doing most things what a NORMAL teenager would do! I was enjoying life and making the most of my freedom. I had my hair highlighted for the first time, I also had my first 'grown up' piercing which I paid for out of my birthday money, I chose to have my belly pierced but unfortunately I had to remove it further down the line as it got infected.
Sadly on the 1st September 2014, late evening I was called over to my local hospital after having a routine blood tests and I was hit was devastating news that I had relapsed. My symptoms were feeling a little tired and having another large outburst of unexplained bruises like the first time. This now meant putting my life on hold from everything I was enjoying once again.
I was going back and forth to the The Royal Marsden to undergo more intensive chemo and this time of having the disease I was told that I would need a bone marrow transplant as the chemotherapy just wouldn't be strong enough on its own to kill the disease off.
Having a bone marrow transplant also meant having to have TBI, total body irradiation. I was fitted with a triple lumen Hickman line (triple lumen Hickman lines are fitted on most transplant patients). Seeing as I now needed this bone marrow transplant the hospital asked if I had any full blood siblings and I did, my brother Bradley was a full blood sibling. They took blood samples from him to see if could be a potential match and possibly my donor but unfortunately he wasn't.
Seeing as my brother wasn't a match to me the hospital then had get in touch with The Antony Nolan Trust, who would receive all of my blood results and information that they needed in order to help find a variety of matches for myself and the transplant that I was going to be having.
After searching the register within the trust they managed to find me 3 possible donors and eventually went with the 9 and a half out of 10 match, who was a 29 year old German Male.
On the 27th March 2015, I had my bone marrow transplant, this process was going to be more slow unlike the first as there was much more to it.
I came across some problems, after my transplant which was expected. I had a little bit of GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) which effected small parts of my skin and that was one of the most common places to get it, this was easily treated by applying cream to the effected areas regularly.
Another problem was that one of the three lumens on my line completely stopped working after transplant but that was okay because the transplant was over and done with therefore I was able to carry on with just two working lumens.
After my transplant I no longer was having any sort of treatment except a few tablets.
Things managed to start getting back to normal again. I starting seeing friends, going shopping for the day up town, using different public transports to get to other towns to meet other friends and do things that a normal teenager would do.
I went back to school again despite having to drop back a year so that I could catch up on all the coursework that I had missed during the time I had off. I was originally due to start back and take my Year 11 GSCEs, there was no way that I was ready for that. I attended part time which then eventually resulted in me attending full time.
I even got a little Saturday job looking after an elderly women who lived about a 30-40minute bus journey away. I helped this lady out by clearing out draws full of letters and junk, by feeding her cats, by wrapping her Christmas presents up, by helping her send emails to her family as well being there to keep her company.
I enjoyed the Saturday job a lot, it was a good pay rate and not too many hours, to know that I was helping an elderly women out that required help with small things, made people think good of me and seeing as I had been helped out since 2011, it was my turn to help others out as much as I could.
At the end of November 2015, I came out in a spotty purple/red rash, I got it checked out by the doctors at the Marsden and the rash turned out to be what they would call a 'low platelet rash'. I was told that I possibly might have relapsed again.
Hearing this was worrying because they wasn't certain if I had or not which meant that they wanted to run some further tests to be sure of what was going on inside of me, so I had another bone marrow aspirate, lumber puncture and other tests so that they could give me an answer.
It was the 8th of December and I was due for a regular check up appointment at The Royal Marsden. This was also the day that I was going to be getting the results from the bone marrow aspirate I previously had done.
Me and my mum arrived at the hospital and I had a strong gut feeling that I wasn't going to be getting the results that I wanted.
Before my scheduled appointment I saw my main consultant in the corridor as well as one of my bone marrow transplant doctors. I said hello to them both, they asked how I had been, but for some reason something didn't seem right, neither seemed their normal selves. I knew something was up, I had a strong feeling that I wasn't going to be leaving that hospital with the news I had been praying for. The time was passing which was making things 10x worse, I started to worry.
Eventually me and my mum were called into one of the consultation rooms. The atmosphere was daunting. We walked into the room and took a seat. The consultant started by apologising to both of us this was when I knew for certain that the news she was about to give us was defiantly going to be bad news, she looked at us both and said that she was really sorry to say but the cancer had returned and I had relapsed again.
I had a little cry and mum sat next to me and comforted me, gave me a hug, wiped my tears and told me that everything was going to be okay and that id get through it, she said "you have beat this b*stard once so you'll beat it again".
Could things get any worse I thought?!
I still had my Hickman line in so there was no need for a new line to be fitted but we was told that there wasn't very many options to take that 'potentially' cured this disease. I was given holding chemo to begin with whilst the top doctors looked into seeing if I would be a possible candidate for this new trial treatment that would be running at the Great Ormand Street Children's Hospital by Professor Persis Amrolia, starting around the end of March beginning of April time.
After The Royal Marsden conferred with Great Ormand Street Hospital, they looked into it more in depth. I was told that I was eligible for this new "Immunotherapy with CD19 CAR redirected T-CELL for high risk relapsed paediatric CD19+ Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Malignancies" trial treatment which I was very pleased about.
This trial treatment was so new to everyone that I was going to be one of the first to trial it in the whole of the UK, but having it open here in the new year around March & April meant I would need many doses of 'maintenance & holding chemo' to keep the Leukaemia under control.
Late December I started to get a chesty cough, it drove me insane but because of it being December, cold, icy and damp; I didn't think much of it until I started spiking high temperatures which resulted in having a 48hr stay in the local hospital to await on my blood cultures that were taken. My CRP level came back high (CRP is the infection marker in the blood) knowing my infection marker was higher than usual, i knew something was going on. I thought because of my cough I might have had a simple chest infection.
Further on I had X-rays and ultra sounds and was told I had a 'fungal chest infection', which is a lot more serious than a normal chest infection as fungus begins to develop on the chest.
I ended up staying in the local hospital for about 2 and a half weeks having antibiotics to try and get rid of the infection, the antibiotics slowly started to work. After being discharged from the local I was still needing to go for routine clinic visits at the Marsden for the holding chemo I was having.
After Christmas my fungal chest infection seemed to be getting worse and worse which caused me to be admitted all the way back to The Royal Marsden around early January 2016 and was VERY poorly due to this fungus so I was put on lots of different antibiotics as well as lots of anti-fungal medicines to try and get rid of it.
I kept myself busy whilst I felt well, I coloured in lots of colourings and decorated the hospital room so the room that I was staying in felt a tiny bit more homely. I made things, decorated things and watched television and films, communicated with friends over FaceTime and other social media like I had done during previous hospital stays but as time went on my infection seemed to have got worse and worse despite being on all these different anti-fungal medicines and antibiotics.
I suddenly started to get extreme pain in my chest and got put on a constant morphine pump with both background and bonus button, the morphine did really knock me for six to the point where I was sleeping most of the day as well as the night. I was oblivious to a lot of things at this point as I constantly slept or wasn't on the planet because of the amount of morphine I was requiring.
On the 21st of February my mum was told I only had a few days to live and she then was given the option to either take me home to enjoy time I had left comfortably with all loved ones close or given the option to be taken to a hospice. My mum refused both of these options like any other parent that cared so much about their sick child would and told the doctors that our journey began here so if it was to end, it would end there. The hospital said to my mum there was nothing more they could do as nothing seemed to be working for me, they took me off ALL my medication, all anti-fungals and antibiotics, everything! (except for morphine which was keeping me comfortable) .
They basically gave up on me...
My mum fought and fought every corner she could for the doctors to try me on one more anti-fungal which hadn't been given so far yet. My mum was not stopping until she got her own way and they proceeded with her request.
2 weeks later on from that day I was still there laying in bed fighting as hard as I could fight. The doctors were surprised by this so they finally listened to my mum and tried the last anti-fungal that I hadn't been given. Each and every day they started to see a little progress, because of them seeing this they began to put me back on my other meds. I was still sleeping pretty much constantly but my oxygen level, pulse and heart rate all began to improve as well as other levels in my blood.
On the 13th of March, just 2weeks and 6days after my mum being told that I wasn't going to make it and being asked wether she wanted to take me home or to a hospice, Jessica Wright from TOWIE came to see me after finishing the Marsden March she done with both Carol Wright and Mark Wright. I had previously met Jess the first time that I was diagnosed, aged 11.
This day was organised by one of my mums friends who got to know both Mark and Jess really well whilst doing nightclub promotion. The story of the day I had was published in an online newspaper and headlined, "When you wish upon an Essex star: Jessica Wright makes a dream come true by meeting cancer patient, Chloey Marshall".
Jess came in to see me but my mum couldn't get me to wake. I was so dosed up on morphine I just didn't stir. She knew that Jess was my favourite TOWIE star from when I used to watch the programme. I was gutted when my mum showed me the photo that she had taken with Jess stood next to my bedside whilst I unaware and sleeping.
Still to this day Jess takes the time and effort to contact me despite the busy life she has herself. She asks how I am doing, as well as sends me gifts and even though I don't watch the TOWIE programme anymore I still follow what she is doing each and everyday from watching her Snapchat stories. Thank you Jess.
Whilst being poorly like I was for the length of time that I was, I pretty much 'forgot' how to talk, I 'forgot' how to swallow my foods and 'forgot' how to walk. If I was eating food my mum would make sure I only had a small mouthful each time and every time I did she would sit there saying to me "don't forget to swallow it", with the talking side of things I only used to say a few words here and there from the sentence that I actually wanted to say, I don't know why I just 'forgot' how to put a full sentence together. It's hard to explain but that's how it was, also forgetting to swallow made the talking side of things harder because my mouth would gradually build up with lots of saliva. I had lots of physiotherapy to start building the muscles back up to how they were originally. I found this very hard and I was very nervous to start with but things progressed quickly, within no time I was able to speak properly again but I still wasn't 100% with swallowing.
I was discharged from The Royal Marsden on the 30th of April 2016 and I consented for my T-CELL trial that I would be having at The Great Ormand Street Hospital on the 19th of May 2016.
I was then admitted to Penguin Ward on the 8th of June 2016 to start the beginning of the trial treatment. I had to be put under local anaesthetic and fitted with a Vass Cath to begin with. The Vass Cath was inserted into the main artery in my groin and later in the day once I had come round from the local anaesthetic I was attached to a large machine which collected my T-CELLS.
The collection of the cells took a couple of hours but once it was finished, hours later the Vass Cath was removed. I stayed over night in the patients hotel located just opposite the hospital.
Both me and mum were taken back home the next morning around 6am and 7am, what a relief!?
I was scheduled to be admitted to Fox Ward on the 26th of June 2016 but unfortunately I had a fever just before. Having a fever meant a trip to my local hospital (QEQM) along with a 48hr stay awaiting blood cultures whilst on preventative antibiotics. On one of the nights of being there one of the nurses tried to flush my line with saline, it seemed stiff as she tried flushing the saline through, with a small push my blue lumen burst.
They had to clamp my line immediately to stop the risk of infection and bleeding out. They clamped the line which had been burst with a pair of plastic clamping scissors from the Hickman safety pack.
This now meant I needed a new Hickman line to be fitted as I only had one lumen left that worked and to have the medicines required I needed two.
I was transferred to St.Georges Hospital to have this new line fitted. I consented to having this done and had it inserted on the 19th of July 2016.
Whilst the surgeons were fitting my new line they somehow managed to puncture my lung, this caused more delays and complications. I had to wear nasal cannulas for a short period of time so that I was able to have pure oxygen that would possibly help heal the acute pneumothorax.
Having been delayed from starting my trail treatment both of the two hospitals conferred and despite my punctured lung Great Ormand Street said that they were happy with the healing progression and that they'd be ready for me to be transferred to the Ward to start my trial treatment so we arrange dates and I was transferred.
Once I had arrived at the ward I was going to be staying on, both me and mum unpacked our belongings and told I needed to go down to have an X-ray to doubl check the healing.
The results of the X-ray came back and I was told that they still wasn't happy to go ahead with treatment until it had FULLY healed. I stayed there over night and was transferred back to St.Georges.
Great Ormand Street would have kept me to save all the travelling around and let it heal but this meant I would have been taking up a bed, stopping another child from having treatment.
I got to St.Georges and was given more pure oxygen, the pneumothorax took a while to fully heal but once it finally healed the hospital let Great Ormand Street know and they wanted me to start treatment but this time the hospital had no beds available and because of that issue St.Georges had to send me to my local which Great Ormand Street really wasn't happy about as they wanted us as close as possible as they were going to have a bed vacant very soon for me.
I then from the local was transferred to The Royal Marsden so that I could have more holding chemo and a bone marrow aspirate to check the percentage of cancerous cells I had in my blood. I got the results back and the percentage wasn't high but it wasn't all that low, it was just above 30% and to start this new T-CELL trial treatment the head leader of the trial (Professor Persis) wanted the first few eligible patients to be around 30% or below, so finally I was ready to begin.
Seeing as I had been travelling around all these hospitals constantly, Great Ormand Street wanted to give me a short 2 week break to go home, chill out and to get as fit and as well as I could be so I was all ready to face the trial, however I still had some of the fungal infection on my chest, it wasn't causing any harm. I had my 16th birthday at home and 5 days later I started my newest journey.
I was admitted to Great Ormand Street on the 16th of August 2016. I had my T-CELLS given back to me after them being regenerated down in the labs on the 24th of August 2016.
Later September 2016, after more bone marrow aspirates and lumbar punctures after having these cells back, I found out that the T-CELLS had started to work and grow, at first some of my results came back that there was only 3 cancerous blast in every 10,000 healthy cells and then 2 weeks later, I had another BMA which showed I had only 1 blast in 100,000 healthy cells which could have just been a bit of dead cell or debris.
This was amazing news to hear but there was one strange occurrence and that was my neutrophils. They still hadn't picked up which meant my immunity was flat. I started to be given granulocytes donated by donors who were the same blood group as me. One happened to be my brother who has now donated 4 bags of them.
My sister is also the same blood group as me and will be having her blood tests the week starting on the 31st of October and then donating to me.
Many people that know me and people that know of me put there name down to donate these granulocytes but only a few have been contacted by The Kings College Hospital, this is the hospital where they run the blood tests and medical checks to see if the donor is eligible to donate to me as well as collect the donation there.
The hospital wanted as many donors as possible so that they had a wide selection to choose from and in case some were not eligible after being tested with both medical and bloods.
As the granulocytes only give a short lasting count boost, i also was told that the hospital want me to have a stem cell transplant which the cells would come from my original male German donor.
Before receiving the granulocyte donations I was told possible side effects. They were, 1 to possibly have an allergic reaction and 2 that they could rush to any infected area in the body and attack which would possibly led to other problems.
After a few bags of these granulocytes, we saw that them problems started occurring. I went into tachycardia after having my first dose and after a few doses later the granulocytes started attacking the fungus on the chest causing it to create a small hole, the hole then got larger and hit a blood vessel near the airways, this made me cough and vomit up a large amount of blood.
Everyone was very worried about this, I was told that they need to do something about the hole which caused the bleed very urgently because if the hole was to get any larger it would then lead to an even bigger bleed from the vessels in my chest which could potentially be life threatening as it would be so close to the lining of my heart.
The consultant gave me a couple of options, the first option given to me was having coils put on the ends of each vessel near the area of the hole that was created to prevent further bleeding, but from doing that there was no certain promise that it would stop any ongoing bleeding. This still would have not given it a complete block from bleeding out in case a vessel was missed.
The second option given to me, was to have a serious operation. During this operation I would have the fungus removed, to do this they would have to cut out the top part of my lung, which is where the fungus was sitting and causing damage. I asked a few questions and they explained it completely, basically they would be leaving the bottom half of the lung which would expand into the cavity where they remove the fungus from.
This was the better option...
I was anxious and scared about the suggestion of having it done because of it being lung surgery, to me that is a dangerous organ in your body to have surgeons operate on. It started worried a lot.
The consultant and doctors also told me that if I was to go for the operation, I would come straight out of surgery and be in intensive care for a short period of time with chest drains in my side to help drain any fluids around the area operated on. This was only for a safety precaution.
Ive had always had some fungal chest infection present on my chest since the beginning, wether it'd be a small amount or large amount and as I mentioned previously in this write up, it nearly took my life in February 2016 so I thought having the surgery would take away extreme risks.
The whole coughing up blood and the talk of surgery was playing on my mind, it was just as scary as being diagnosed with (ALL) blood cancer and also being told that I had relapsed. Despite being worried sick about the operation I went ahead with the decision of having it done which I consented for that same day, I went down to have my operation at about 7:30 that same night.
My surgery took around 4 hours and what needed to be removed was removed. I was fitted with 2 chest drains to drain the excess blood and fluids from around the area where the top of the left lung was removed, the drains were not permanent. They were going to be taken out once only little fluid was draining from the area.
During surgery I was also fitted with a breathing tube that went down my throat, this meant I couldn't eat, I also had an NG tube so that the team could drain out any aspirate in my stomach to prevent vomiting whilst under anaesthetic and vomiting when having the breathing removed. I had two cannulas, one in each wrist and an arterial line in my right wrist, all 3 majorly bruised.
I woke up at 7am the morning after surgery, the nurses were surprised I was awake as they wasn't planning to wake me until around 10/11am.
Even though I was awake I was still really dopey, I also had the tubes and drains still present in me. I was starving so luckily the tube in my mouth and nose were removed later that evening which meant i was able to properly eat and drink again after 2 days of being nil by mouth! Whilst I was nil by mouth and unable to maintain calories myself I was supported with TPN, a calorie supplement.
My thoracotomy wound was very tender and swollen, it hurt to lay on my back. Every night it took a very long time for me to get into a comfortable position to get some sleep. Any pressure that was put onto the swelling of the area and around the wound pained me very much. My pain score seemed to always be above a 5.
My mum stayed with me until midnight that night and then had to leave to go back to my room on Fox Ward for sleep, but came back to me the following morning when she woke up. I didn't sleep much in intensive care as I wasn't tired, I got about a couple of hours but the hours weren't solid hours as I was waking up here and there.
My mum has NEVER left my bedside in hospital throughout these years unless she had a swap for the night with my sister, so it was very strange not having her there in intensive care for the night but I was fine and always had the nurse in with me.
Thankfully that following afternoon at about 1:30pm, I was admitted back up to Fox Ward.
Wednesday 18th October, (6 days after my operation) I had my both my chest drains removed but because I had no warning as to what time the surgeon was coming to remove them meant I hadn't been dosed up on the pain relief I needed. All I had to help was a cold numbing spray which didn't have much effect on me or the area it was sprayed. I was given a calming medicine called Madazolam but that didn't work either, so not only was I going to feel the pain of them being removed I was also worked up about it. It hurt me a lot and after all the screams and squeals, grinning and barring, they were finally out.
On the up side to having those drains removed I was the able to re dress all of my dressing site so that it was nice, fresh and clean, I also got to see how long my scar was which measured at 7.5inches, this was another scar to my 'collection'.
13 days post op (the 25th of October 2016) the surgeon reviewed me, he looked at the thoracotomy wound and was very pleased with the healing and progress that I had made since having the op and the chest drains removed so he decided he would take my stitches out, he took them out and it's safe to say it didn't hurt me, I felt him cut the stitch and a tiny tug but that's all .
Unfortunately on the 3rd of March 2017 at about 7:30pm my mum got a phonecall with the devastating news that I had RELAPSED. I am now on my 4th fight! I will beat this!!!
Many people have told me I am a true inspiration, a strong little fighter who never gives up, or lets anything get in the way or phase me and said I take everything in my stride and get on with it.
I hope my story has made you realise how precious life can be at all times and to not take anything for granted. You never know what is round the corner. Live everyday like it's your last and make the most the most of the time you have.
After reading my story, do you reckon you could help raise funds for these dream holidays and help out by sharing this page as much as possible?
I will be posting as many updates as I can on my Facebook support page & gofundme page to keep all of you that are following my story updated on what is going on and how things are going.
You're braver than you believe,
Stronger than you think &
Smarter than you seem....
Thank you all, Chloey Marshall.
If you would like to contact me to ask any further questions about times through my treatment, feel free to contact me on any of these below-
Facebook Support Group: Chloey's Wishes
Facebook Messenger: Chloey Marshall
Instagram: chloeymarshallx
Twitter: @chloeey6

This page was set up by myself, Chloey with help from my mother Natalie and sister Kelly.
Could you help with raising funds?
Basically my dream is to be sent off on a dream holiday of my choice in which I have chosen to have two weeks at an all inclusive water park in Magaluf as soon as I'm well, finished all treatment and able to finally fly abroad but funding this ourselves isn't as easy as you think so that is why we asking for some help.
Since being a teenager with a life changing illness it's been hard for me because I can't do what a so called "normal" teenager my age would be doing for example - going out to meet friends, going to college or school, going to large shopping centres, going to concerts and theme parks, but there's always been one specific dream I've have always had and that dream is to fly abroad with my 28 year older sister, Kelly. Let our hair down and enjoy a nice sunny holiday together.
Due to being seriously ill since 2011, aged 10years old. I haven't even been able to do many things as such and haven't been able to spend time away. This is why I wish to go on my dream holiday abroad to somewhere hot, relaxing & sunny.
Id be so grateful if you could help make my dream come true but not only help make my dream come true but l also think all of my close family such as my mum, my brother, my sister and close people who have helped out so far should have the right to be treated to. Treating them would be by going on a small holiday, somewhere closer to home.
They have been there for me and are always helping me out as much as they can so once we have raised as much funds as we can, we are not certain as to where we would like to go yet but we all would like to spend some quality family time together somewhere nice as we have never be able to spend a lot of time together. It won't be anywhere abroad as my mum nor my brother will get on an aeroplane and fly anymore.
My mum has never let me be left alone a single night in any hospital during my overnight stays, she has always been there by my side. If she needed a break to go home over the weekend to see my brother she always managed to sort something out so that someone would be there to stay with me, she gives me my regular medications and keeps everything on track, she has constantly been on the ball with things I've needed to have done or needed to do since all of this started and still to this day is. She is defiantly one in a million and I couldn't be more grateful or thank her enough for everything she has done for me, she deserves the world if not more, and if I could give it to her, I most certainly would. I love you mum.
My sister has helped out a lot with the hospital stays so that my mum could get short breaks here and there from staying with me. This mainly was during the first diagnosis and relapse. My sister has also set up the savings account to save for the money raised for our two holidays despite going through a very upsetting tough time herself after having complications during a twin pregnancy.
My brother has been left to fend for himself so much as well as been left responsible for the care of my pet Chihuahua named Oreo. This has happened during every hospital stay and visit that both me and mum have had to attended and because of this happening for so long and so often it has caused him some problems of his own, he had to come out of his last year in education and some other personal problems came about so for all the stress, worry and problems this has caused these are the reasons as to why they deserved to be treated just as much.
Here is my story so far:
I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia on the 17th of June 2011 and was referred to The Royal Marsden in Sutton.
I underwent 2years,4months, 1week and 2days of treatment and the average treatment for a girl with this type of cancer is 2years, 2months. At the beginning of my treatment I had a portacath fitted so I could receive my chemotherapy, have bloods taken, given antibiotics as well as having any blood products I required / other medication.
I pretty much sailed through the treatment, not many side effects hit me but I did hit a rather frightening stage at one point, basically a couple of the chemos that were on my protocol clashed after both were given too close together which caused me to have two minor strokes both effecting the left side of my face and upper body due to having these strokes I was admitted to St. Georges Hospital in Tooting, London due to this and thankfully I was very lucky and able to sleep them off over the course of 2 nights sleep.
I also had encountered something called 'reduced shortening fraction' on my heart, this was a rare side effect of one of the chemotherapies, this was previously known to have happened to other patients, but it did eventually right itself.
My end of treatment was on the 26th October 2013 and within months after finishing treatment, I was able to have my portacath removed; then on I managed to get back on track to start living a 'normal' teenage life seeing as I was now 13.
I attended school part time, I was going out with my friends, I was doing most things what a NORMAL teenager would do! I was enjoying life and making the most of my freedom. I had my hair highlighted for the first time, I also had my first 'grown up' piercing which I paid for out of my birthday money, I chose to have my belly pierced but unfortunately I had to remove it further down the line as it got infected.
Sadly on the 1st September 2014, late evening I was called over to my local hospital after having a routine blood tests and I was hit was devastating news that I had relapsed. My symptoms were feeling a little tired and having another large outburst of unexplained bruises like the first time. This now meant putting my life on hold from everything I was enjoying once again.
I was going back and forth to the The Royal Marsden to undergo more intensive chemo and this time of having the disease I was told that I would need a bone marrow transplant as the chemotherapy just wouldn't be strong enough on its own to kill the disease off.
Having a bone marrow transplant also meant having to have TBI, total body irradiation. I was fitted with a triple lumen Hickman line (triple lumen Hickman lines are fitted on most transplant patients). Seeing as I now needed this bone marrow transplant the hospital asked if I had any full blood siblings and I did, my brother Bradley was a full blood sibling. They took blood samples from him to see if could be a potential match and possibly my donor but unfortunately he wasn't.
Seeing as my brother wasn't a match to me the hospital then had get in touch with The Antony Nolan Trust, who would receive all of my blood results and information that they needed in order to help find a variety of matches for myself and the transplant that I was going to be having.
After searching the register within the trust they managed to find me 3 possible donors and eventually went with the 9 and a half out of 10 match, who was a 29 year old German Male.
On the 27th March 2015, I had my bone marrow transplant, this process was going to be more slow unlike the first as there was much more to it.
I came across some problems, after my transplant which was expected. I had a little bit of GVHD (Graft Versus Host Disease) which effected small parts of my skin and that was one of the most common places to get it, this was easily treated by applying cream to the effected areas regularly.
Another problem was that one of the three lumens on my line completely stopped working after transplant but that was okay because the transplant was over and done with therefore I was able to carry on with just two working lumens.
After my transplant I no longer was having any sort of treatment except a few tablets.
Things managed to start getting back to normal again. I starting seeing friends, going shopping for the day up town, using different public transports to get to other towns to meet other friends and do things that a normal teenager would do.
I went back to school again despite having to drop back a year so that I could catch up on all the coursework that I had missed during the time I had off. I was originally due to start back and take my Year 11 GSCEs, there was no way that I was ready for that. I attended part time which then eventually resulted in me attending full time.
I even got a little Saturday job looking after an elderly women who lived about a 30-40minute bus journey away. I helped this lady out by clearing out draws full of letters and junk, by feeding her cats, by wrapping her Christmas presents up, by helping her send emails to her family as well being there to keep her company.
I enjoyed the Saturday job a lot, it was a good pay rate and not too many hours, to know that I was helping an elderly women out that required help with small things, made people think good of me and seeing as I had been helped out since 2011, it was my turn to help others out as much as I could.
At the end of November 2015, I came out in a spotty purple/red rash, I got it checked out by the doctors at the Marsden and the rash turned out to be what they would call a 'low platelet rash'. I was told that I possibly might have relapsed again.
Hearing this was worrying because they wasn't certain if I had or not which meant that they wanted to run some further tests to be sure of what was going on inside of me, so I had another bone marrow aspirate, lumber puncture and other tests so that they could give me an answer.
It was the 8th of December and I was due for a regular check up appointment at The Royal Marsden. This was also the day that I was going to be getting the results from the bone marrow aspirate I previously had done.
Me and my mum arrived at the hospital and I had a strong gut feeling that I wasn't going to be getting the results that I wanted.
Before my scheduled appointment I saw my main consultant in the corridor as well as one of my bone marrow transplant doctors. I said hello to them both, they asked how I had been, but for some reason something didn't seem right, neither seemed their normal selves. I knew something was up, I had a strong feeling that I wasn't going to be leaving that hospital with the news I had been praying for. The time was passing which was making things 10x worse, I started to worry.
Eventually me and my mum were called into one of the consultation rooms. The atmosphere was daunting. We walked into the room and took a seat. The consultant started by apologising to both of us this was when I knew for certain that the news she was about to give us was defiantly going to be bad news, she looked at us both and said that she was really sorry to say but the cancer had returned and I had relapsed again.
I had a little cry and mum sat next to me and comforted me, gave me a hug, wiped my tears and told me that everything was going to be okay and that id get through it, she said "you have beat this b*stard once so you'll beat it again".
Could things get any worse I thought?!
I still had my Hickman line in so there was no need for a new line to be fitted but we was told that there wasn't very many options to take that 'potentially' cured this disease. I was given holding chemo to begin with whilst the top doctors looked into seeing if I would be a possible candidate for this new trial treatment that would be running at the Great Ormand Street Children's Hospital by Professor Persis Amrolia, starting around the end of March beginning of April time.
After The Royal Marsden conferred with Great Ormand Street Hospital, they looked into it more in depth. I was told that I was eligible for this new "Immunotherapy with CD19 CAR redirected T-CELL for high risk relapsed paediatric CD19+ Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Malignancies" trial treatment which I was very pleased about.
This trial treatment was so new to everyone that I was going to be one of the first to trial it in the whole of the UK, but having it open here in the new year around March & April meant I would need many doses of 'maintenance & holding chemo' to keep the Leukaemia under control.
Late December I started to get a chesty cough, it drove me insane but because of it being December, cold, icy and damp; I didn't think much of it until I started spiking high temperatures which resulted in having a 48hr stay in the local hospital to await on my blood cultures that were taken. My CRP level came back high (CRP is the infection marker in the blood) knowing my infection marker was higher than usual, i knew something was going on. I thought because of my cough I might have had a simple chest infection.
Further on I had X-rays and ultra sounds and was told I had a 'fungal chest infection', which is a lot more serious than a normal chest infection as fungus begins to develop on the chest.
I ended up staying in the local hospital for about 2 and a half weeks having antibiotics to try and get rid of the infection, the antibiotics slowly started to work. After being discharged from the local I was still needing to go for routine clinic visits at the Marsden for the holding chemo I was having.
After Christmas my fungal chest infection seemed to be getting worse and worse which caused me to be admitted all the way back to The Royal Marsden around early January 2016 and was VERY poorly due to this fungus so I was put on lots of different antibiotics as well as lots of anti-fungal medicines to try and get rid of it.
I kept myself busy whilst I felt well, I coloured in lots of colourings and decorated the hospital room so the room that I was staying in felt a tiny bit more homely. I made things, decorated things and watched television and films, communicated with friends over FaceTime and other social media like I had done during previous hospital stays but as time went on my infection seemed to have got worse and worse despite being on all these different anti-fungal medicines and antibiotics.
I suddenly started to get extreme pain in my chest and got put on a constant morphine pump with both background and bonus button, the morphine did really knock me for six to the point where I was sleeping most of the day as well as the night. I was oblivious to a lot of things at this point as I constantly slept or wasn't on the planet because of the amount of morphine I was requiring.
On the 21st of February my mum was told I only had a few days to live and she then was given the option to either take me home to enjoy time I had left comfortably with all loved ones close or given the option to be taken to a hospice. My mum refused both of these options like any other parent that cared so much about their sick child would and told the doctors that our journey began here so if it was to end, it would end there. The hospital said to my mum there was nothing more they could do as nothing seemed to be working for me, they took me off ALL my medication, all anti-fungals and antibiotics, everything! (except for morphine which was keeping me comfortable) .
They basically gave up on me...
My mum fought and fought every corner she could for the doctors to try me on one more anti-fungal which hadn't been given so far yet. My mum was not stopping until she got her own way and they proceeded with her request.
2 weeks later on from that day I was still there laying in bed fighting as hard as I could fight. The doctors were surprised by this so they finally listened to my mum and tried the last anti-fungal that I hadn't been given. Each and every day they started to see a little progress, because of them seeing this they began to put me back on my other meds. I was still sleeping pretty much constantly but my oxygen level, pulse and heart rate all began to improve as well as other levels in my blood.
On the 13th of March, just 2weeks and 6days after my mum being told that I wasn't going to make it and being asked wether she wanted to take me home or to a hospice, Jessica Wright from TOWIE came to see me after finishing the Marsden March she done with both Carol Wright and Mark Wright. I had previously met Jess the first time that I was diagnosed, aged 11.
This day was organised by one of my mums friends who got to know both Mark and Jess really well whilst doing nightclub promotion. The story of the day I had was published in an online newspaper and headlined, "When you wish upon an Essex star: Jessica Wright makes a dream come true by meeting cancer patient, Chloey Marshall".
Jess came in to see me but my mum couldn't get me to wake. I was so dosed up on morphine I just didn't stir. She knew that Jess was my favourite TOWIE star from when I used to watch the programme. I was gutted when my mum showed me the photo that she had taken with Jess stood next to my bedside whilst I unaware and sleeping.
Still to this day Jess takes the time and effort to contact me despite the busy life she has herself. She asks how I am doing, as well as sends me gifts and even though I don't watch the TOWIE programme anymore I still follow what she is doing each and everyday from watching her Snapchat stories. Thank you Jess.
Whilst being poorly like I was for the length of time that I was, I pretty much 'forgot' how to talk, I 'forgot' how to swallow my foods and 'forgot' how to walk. If I was eating food my mum would make sure I only had a small mouthful each time and every time I did she would sit there saying to me "don't forget to swallow it", with the talking side of things I only used to say a few words here and there from the sentence that I actually wanted to say, I don't know why I just 'forgot' how to put a full sentence together. It's hard to explain but that's how it was, also forgetting to swallow made the talking side of things harder because my mouth would gradually build up with lots of saliva. I had lots of physiotherapy to start building the muscles back up to how they were originally. I found this very hard and I was very nervous to start with but things progressed quickly, within no time I was able to speak properly again but I still wasn't 100% with swallowing.
I was discharged from The Royal Marsden on the 30th of April 2016 and I consented for my T-CELL trial that I would be having at The Great Ormand Street Hospital on the 19th of May 2016.
I was then admitted to Penguin Ward on the 8th of June 2016 to start the beginning of the trial treatment. I had to be put under local anaesthetic and fitted with a Vass Cath to begin with. The Vass Cath was inserted into the main artery in my groin and later in the day once I had come round from the local anaesthetic I was attached to a large machine which collected my T-CELLS.
The collection of the cells took a couple of hours but once it was finished, hours later the Vass Cath was removed. I stayed over night in the patients hotel located just opposite the hospital.
Both me and mum were taken back home the next morning around 6am and 7am, what a relief!?
I was scheduled to be admitted to Fox Ward on the 26th of June 2016 but unfortunately I had a fever just before. Having a fever meant a trip to my local hospital (QEQM) along with a 48hr stay awaiting blood cultures whilst on preventative antibiotics. On one of the nights of being there one of the nurses tried to flush my line with saline, it seemed stiff as she tried flushing the saline through, with a small push my blue lumen burst.
They had to clamp my line immediately to stop the risk of infection and bleeding out. They clamped the line which had been burst with a pair of plastic clamping scissors from the Hickman safety pack.
This now meant I needed a new Hickman line to be fitted as I only had one lumen left that worked and to have the medicines required I needed two.
I was transferred to St.Georges Hospital to have this new line fitted. I consented to having this done and had it inserted on the 19th of July 2016.
Whilst the surgeons were fitting my new line they somehow managed to puncture my lung, this caused more delays and complications. I had to wear nasal cannulas for a short period of time so that I was able to have pure oxygen that would possibly help heal the acute pneumothorax.
Having been delayed from starting my trail treatment both of the two hospitals conferred and despite my punctured lung Great Ormand Street said that they were happy with the healing progression and that they'd be ready for me to be transferred to the Ward to start my trial treatment so we arrange dates and I was transferred.
Once I had arrived at the ward I was going to be staying on, both me and mum unpacked our belongings and told I needed to go down to have an X-ray to doubl check the healing.
The results of the X-ray came back and I was told that they still wasn't happy to go ahead with treatment until it had FULLY healed. I stayed there over night and was transferred back to St.Georges.
Great Ormand Street would have kept me to save all the travelling around and let it heal but this meant I would have been taking up a bed, stopping another child from having treatment.
I got to St.Georges and was given more pure oxygen, the pneumothorax took a while to fully heal but once it finally healed the hospital let Great Ormand Street know and they wanted me to start treatment but this time the hospital had no beds available and because of that issue St.Georges had to send me to my local which Great Ormand Street really wasn't happy about as they wanted us as close as possible as they were going to have a bed vacant very soon for me.
I then from the local was transferred to The Royal Marsden so that I could have more holding chemo and a bone marrow aspirate to check the percentage of cancerous cells I had in my blood. I got the results back and the percentage wasn't high but it wasn't all that low, it was just above 30% and to start this new T-CELL trial treatment the head leader of the trial (Professor Persis) wanted the first few eligible patients to be around 30% or below, so finally I was ready to begin.
Seeing as I had been travelling around all these hospitals constantly, Great Ormand Street wanted to give me a short 2 week break to go home, chill out and to get as fit and as well as I could be so I was all ready to face the trial, however I still had some of the fungal infection on my chest, it wasn't causing any harm. I had my 16th birthday at home and 5 days later I started my newest journey.
I was admitted to Great Ormand Street on the 16th of August 2016. I had my T-CELLS given back to me after them being regenerated down in the labs on the 24th of August 2016.
Later September 2016, after more bone marrow aspirates and lumbar punctures after having these cells back, I found out that the T-CELLS had started to work and grow, at first some of my results came back that there was only 3 cancerous blast in every 10,000 healthy cells and then 2 weeks later, I had another BMA which showed I had only 1 blast in 100,000 healthy cells which could have just been a bit of dead cell or debris.
This was amazing news to hear but there was one strange occurrence and that was my neutrophils. They still hadn't picked up which meant my immunity was flat. I started to be given granulocytes donated by donors who were the same blood group as me. One happened to be my brother who has now donated 4 bags of them.
My sister is also the same blood group as me and will be having her blood tests the week starting on the 31st of October and then donating to me.
Many people that know me and people that know of me put there name down to donate these granulocytes but only a few have been contacted by The Kings College Hospital, this is the hospital where they run the blood tests and medical checks to see if the donor is eligible to donate to me as well as collect the donation there.
The hospital wanted as many donors as possible so that they had a wide selection to choose from and in case some were not eligible after being tested with both medical and bloods.
As the granulocytes only give a short lasting count boost, i also was told that the hospital want me to have a stem cell transplant which the cells would come from my original male German donor.
Before receiving the granulocyte donations I was told possible side effects. They were, 1 to possibly have an allergic reaction and 2 that they could rush to any infected area in the body and attack which would possibly led to other problems.
After a few bags of these granulocytes, we saw that them problems started occurring. I went into tachycardia after having my first dose and after a few doses later the granulocytes started attacking the fungus on the chest causing it to create a small hole, the hole then got larger and hit a blood vessel near the airways, this made me cough and vomit up a large amount of blood.
Everyone was very worried about this, I was told that they need to do something about the hole which caused the bleed very urgently because if the hole was to get any larger it would then lead to an even bigger bleed from the vessels in my chest which could potentially be life threatening as it would be so close to the lining of my heart.
The consultant gave me a couple of options, the first option given to me was having coils put on the ends of each vessel near the area of the hole that was created to prevent further bleeding, but from doing that there was no certain promise that it would stop any ongoing bleeding. This still would have not given it a complete block from bleeding out in case a vessel was missed.
The second option given to me, was to have a serious operation. During this operation I would have the fungus removed, to do this they would have to cut out the top part of my lung, which is where the fungus was sitting and causing damage. I asked a few questions and they explained it completely, basically they would be leaving the bottom half of the lung which would expand into the cavity where they remove the fungus from.
This was the better option...
I was anxious and scared about the suggestion of having it done because of it being lung surgery, to me that is a dangerous organ in your body to have surgeons operate on. It started worried a lot.
The consultant and doctors also told me that if I was to go for the operation, I would come straight out of surgery and be in intensive care for a short period of time with chest drains in my side to help drain any fluids around the area operated on. This was only for a safety precaution.
Ive had always had some fungal chest infection present on my chest since the beginning, wether it'd be a small amount or large amount and as I mentioned previously in this write up, it nearly took my life in February 2016 so I thought having the surgery would take away extreme risks.
The whole coughing up blood and the talk of surgery was playing on my mind, it was just as scary as being diagnosed with (ALL) blood cancer and also being told that I had relapsed. Despite being worried sick about the operation I went ahead with the decision of having it done which I consented for that same day, I went down to have my operation at about 7:30 that same night.
My surgery took around 4 hours and what needed to be removed was removed. I was fitted with 2 chest drains to drain the excess blood and fluids from around the area where the top of the left lung was removed, the drains were not permanent. They were going to be taken out once only little fluid was draining from the area.
During surgery I was also fitted with a breathing tube that went down my throat, this meant I couldn't eat, I also had an NG tube so that the team could drain out any aspirate in my stomach to prevent vomiting whilst under anaesthetic and vomiting when having the breathing removed. I had two cannulas, one in each wrist and an arterial line in my right wrist, all 3 majorly bruised.
I woke up at 7am the morning after surgery, the nurses were surprised I was awake as they wasn't planning to wake me until around 10/11am.
Even though I was awake I was still really dopey, I also had the tubes and drains still present in me. I was starving so luckily the tube in my mouth and nose were removed later that evening which meant i was able to properly eat and drink again after 2 days of being nil by mouth! Whilst I was nil by mouth and unable to maintain calories myself I was supported with TPN, a calorie supplement.
My thoracotomy wound was very tender and swollen, it hurt to lay on my back. Every night it took a very long time for me to get into a comfortable position to get some sleep. Any pressure that was put onto the swelling of the area and around the wound pained me very much. My pain score seemed to always be above a 5.
My mum stayed with me until midnight that night and then had to leave to go back to my room on Fox Ward for sleep, but came back to me the following morning when she woke up. I didn't sleep much in intensive care as I wasn't tired, I got about a couple of hours but the hours weren't solid hours as I was waking up here and there.
My mum has NEVER left my bedside in hospital throughout these years unless she had a swap for the night with my sister, so it was very strange not having her there in intensive care for the night but I was fine and always had the nurse in with me.
Thankfully that following afternoon at about 1:30pm, I was admitted back up to Fox Ward.
Wednesday 18th October, (6 days after my operation) I had my both my chest drains removed but because I had no warning as to what time the surgeon was coming to remove them meant I hadn't been dosed up on the pain relief I needed. All I had to help was a cold numbing spray which didn't have much effect on me or the area it was sprayed. I was given a calming medicine called Madazolam but that didn't work either, so not only was I going to feel the pain of them being removed I was also worked up about it. It hurt me a lot and after all the screams and squeals, grinning and barring, they were finally out.
On the up side to having those drains removed I was the able to re dress all of my dressing site so that it was nice, fresh and clean, I also got to see how long my scar was which measured at 7.5inches, this was another scar to my 'collection'.
13 days post op (the 25th of October 2016) the surgeon reviewed me, he looked at the thoracotomy wound and was very pleased with the healing and progress that I had made since having the op and the chest drains removed so he decided he would take my stitches out, he took them out and it's safe to say it didn't hurt me, I felt him cut the stitch and a tiny tug but that's all .
Unfortunately on the 3rd of March 2017 at about 7:30pm my mum got a phonecall with the devastating news that I had RELAPSED. I am now on my 4th fight! I will beat this!!!
Many people have told me I am a true inspiration, a strong little fighter who never gives up, or lets anything get in the way or phase me and said I take everything in my stride and get on with it.
I hope my story has made you realise how precious life can be at all times and to not take anything for granted. You never know what is round the corner. Live everyday like it's your last and make the most the most of the time you have.
After reading my story, do you reckon you could help raise funds for these dream holidays and help out by sharing this page as much as possible?
I will be posting as many updates as I can on my Facebook support page & gofundme page to keep all of you that are following my story updated on what is going on and how things are going.
You're braver than you believe,
Stronger than you think &
Smarter than you seem....
Thank you all, Chloey Marshall.
If you would like to contact me to ask any further questions about times through my treatment, feel free to contact me on any of these below-
Facebook Support Group: Chloey's Wishes
Facebook Messenger: Chloey Marshall
Instagram: chloeymarshallx
Twitter: @chloeey6
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Chloey Marshall
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