Help Faith & her mum get through her treatment

My name is Abbie and I’ve been best friends with Jane (faiths mum) for 35 years.

I have watched Jane fight for an investigation for Faith for years as her concerns grew. Poor faith was diagnosed with a brain tumour and recently underwent surgery.

Jane is a nurse and had to go on the sick to support Faith with 24/7 care & there is no idea when she will be better to enable Jane to work.

Jane is a single mum battling financially to survive while being in the hospital with Faith.

NO mum should have to worry about bills while going through this.

I want to help relieve Jane of this financial burden and ask anyone who is in a position to help even with £1 to donate.

The funds will go directly to Faith's mum's account, to support them while in hospital for petrol, parking, and food as well as support their bills at home while Jane cannot work while looking after beautiful Faith.

I have asked Jane to write Faith’s story so far. Which I have included below

Faith and Jane have today featured on BBC breakfast at 7:46am 2/8/23

Bbc Breakfast Show

Faith is also going for more surgery today

Jane & Faith’s Story:

Faith is a beautiful 15 year old girl, intelligent, hilarious, kind and truly a beautiful soul who cares about everyone before herself.

She has always been of small stature but just assumed she would shoot up when she started puberty.

All her friends around her by 13 were growing up but faith was still her small but larger than life character.

I took her to the doctors when she was 13 saying she just isn’t growing noticed by her clothes mainly as she never needed new ones! He said, she’s 13 let’s give her a chance to grow, I agreed.

A year later faith became more aware of her size and lack of “ the normal signs of growing up”.

We saw a doctor who agreed to refer to paediatrics for an assessment.

We were seen by a consultant in Bolton due to the very long waiting times at Preston hospital,

November 2022. We went along to her appointment and she had lots of tests, bloods, ECG, bone scans, I believe the consultant just felt she was a late developer as her bone scan was age 12 and things would come naturally however when the bloods came back there were a few that needed an assessment therefore referred us to Manchester children’s hospital Endocrine consultant.

In February 2023, we had the appointment and she organised an urgent MRI scan and pacific bloods to be obtained.

On the 11th of March we went for an MRI to Bolton and we left, I was feeling relieved as being in the profession myself knew that they usually tell you if there is a problem there and then!

On the 14th of March, I was at work in a patient's house and received a call from

The consultant at Bolton, asked if I could talk, I am a palliative care specialist nurse and was sat with a patient in their home therefore said I would ring her back.

I left the house and rang her back, she informed me they had found a tumour on faiths brain and she needed to be admitted that day. My world turned upside down and I crumbled but had to go and pick her up from school, go and get our bags packed for the hospital and act calm for her!

I picked her up and she said who’s died! I said no one but we have to go to the hospital as they have found something on your scans, off we went.

She had MRI scans, CT scans and every test going and we were informed this is a very rare brain tumour called a cranipharynginoma. This is not a cancerous tumour however can grow back if not all removed.

Unfortunately her tumour was large and was affecting her optic chiasm, left eye, hypothalamus and pituitary gland. They told us that she would require surgery as soon as possible. We were discharged on the 15th of march expecting surgery soon.

I had a couple of days off work and we sat down and said let’s just carry on as normal with school and work until we know more and get a date. Faith remained her normal self and in reflection, I carried on as normal in denial!

On the 3rd of may we were called by the Neurosurgeons to discuss the plan, the risks of the operation and how this will affect faiths life. It was the worst information I have ever heard and i knew this was going to be life changing! I couldn’t continue going to work as I was very anxious and just couldn’t think clearly nor optimistically, so was signed off sick by the doctor.

Date for surgery was the 21st of June, faith said she was relieved we had a date as just wanted it over with. We sat waiting to be taken to theatre, she had a gown on ready then the surgeons arrived to inform us it had been cancelled, none of us could speak, it was awful.

Off we went home to wait for the next date to be arranged which was a challenge as she required three surgeons to do the op, a ENT surgeon, a paediatric neurosurgeon and a skull base neurosurgeon.

We finally got a date for surgery on the 10th of July.

She had a 9 hour operation, we were told the removal of the tumour went well, leaving only very small scattered bits left which were too close to important structures but they were very concerned that she would be blind as the tumour had grown through her optic nerve and was all around her optic chiasm and pituitary gland was taken over completely by the tumour therefore they had taken it all away. Time ticked on and she was still in recovery, I was soo anxious that I went to ask if I could see her and they let us in.

She was soo poorly, I could have collapsed looking at her, my perfect daughters life has changed forever.

She was taken to ICU however was leaking cerebral spinal fluid from her nose so was taken back to the theatre the next day for a lumber drain to relieve pressure on the brain. When she looked at me and I knew she could see me, the relief was indescribable as she had told me she would rather be dead than blind.

Faith was soo strong and day by day took it all in her stride, we got discharged on the 21st to start to rebuild her new life.

Sunday 23rd her nose started to leak again which is a huge risk of infection so off we went to Manchester A&E.

we were readmitted and she had 2 lumber punctures awake then became unwell on Monday morning showing signs of sepsis. Faith had meningitis due to the opening in her head from the leak, she was put on ABX and went to the theatre for a lumber drain again and coming round was just awful. She has been soo poorly and her nose continues to leak.

We have been informed that Faith is going to have attend a-lot of hospital appointments going forward and her symptoms will need to be closely monitored, she will need 3 monthly MRI scans to check for regrowth and it the tumour regrows then it will be daily proton beam therapy for 6 weeks. She will be regularly reviewed by the neurology teams and endocrine teams going forward. Due to the complexities around the structures removed, this will impact on day to day living. As a parent it’s the constant turmoil, you want to be with you child who needs you the most they ever have but you have your responsibilities as an employee with financial responsibilities also.

I work full time and have now used all my sick pay as work for an organisation not the NHS. I do not get financial help and am a single parent of faith and her 18 year old brother.

Faiths short term memory after surgery is so bad she can’t remember a conversation 10 minutes earlier. This is so concerning and the need for constant reminders and reassurance and also the importance of her medication being given as could become very ill which I have to do

Our lives have changed dramatically we have to do what it takes to support faiths needs and also to financially manage until our lives can return to some sort of normality, which with her strength and determination shouldn’t be too long away.

We are still in hospital and another operation is planned to revise her nasal leak on Wednesday, so being optimistic we are here for another week at least!

Without the love and support of my family and friends and wider community , I am not sure where we would be but I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all your messages and love you send

I want to raise awareness to you parents who doubt their gut feelings that’s somethings just not right, you fight for your child as you know them better than anyone!!

You never think it’s going to happen to you or yours but it does and no planning can change what’s for you in this world xx