Help keep the family together while Olivia beats Cancer!

On the 17th June, after many trips to the doctor, my grandaughter Olivia was taken to Colchester a&e because her mum, my daughter, knew, despite what the doctor said, something wasn’t right.

The next day Olivia was taken for an MRI and that’s when our world fell apart!

We were told she had a large BRAIN TUMOUR and they were whisked off to addenbrooks in Cambridge to have an emergency operation to drain the build up of fluid in her brain.

A few days later she underwent an 8 hour surgery to remove the tumour and send it off to determine what type it was.

The results came back and she was diagnosed with a cancer called medulloblastoma which has spread to her spine!

Olivia is the most beautiful, clever and loving little girl with big blue eyes, eyelashes that women pay money for and the most amazing smile. At only 4 years old she’s already been through so much in the last month and it’s only just begun.

She started her first round of chemo last week and will continue to have chemo and radiotherapy for at least the next year.

Olivia has 3 siblings ranging from 12 to 3 years old who miss them dearly when they are in hospital.

All this has also been a huge financial burden on Olivia’s mum (my daughter) to the point she was unable to pay her rent!

On top of this her car broke down and so it’s a real struggle trying to get to treatment.

Olivia goes to London at the end of august for 6 weeks of radiotherapy and we would love to be able to bring the kids and stay together as a family so if anyone can help out in any way we all would really appreciate it.

The money will be used to pay for extra accommodation as only Olivia and her mum can stay in the accommodation provided. parking or train fares to London, food and activities while there, anything that Olivia may need along this cancer journey including any extra private therapy that may improve her well being, as well as helping to cover the cost of keeping her home running.

It’s very difficult to be specific about what the money will be used for as we don’t know what she may need.

Everything has happened so quickly we have hardly had time to process what’s happening but so far Olivia’s mum has had to buy clothes, toiletries and food when Olivia was rushed to Addenbrooks as they only had the clothes they were wearing and as we all live nearly 2 hours away, it wasn’t possible to get there to bring things from home. We then moved Olivia’s bedroom into her mums room and Olivia needed a new bed and mattress, blinds for when she gets headaches, loads of cleaning products to keep it sanitised, a shelf for the sharps bin and medical supplies to be out of reach of the children, a second hand wipe clean sofa to make it easier to clean when Olivia is sick, a special hair washing basin as she could no longer wash Olivia’s hair in the bath due to not being able to get her Hickman line wet, new sheets and duvet covers so she has enough to change her bedding every day in order to minimise any risk of infection. Material so her mum could make Olivia some hats for when her hair falls out, petrol and parking at the hospital and more!

The treatment Olivia is having carries a high risk of side affects that can be permanent due to her age and so until those happen we are unsure of what therapies or equipment Olivia will need.

I will post regular updates throughout to keep you all informed of how Olivia is doing.

Thankyou in advance

God bless

Olivia's grandma