Olivia Maunder

For my beautiful little sister Olivia

In November of 2020 at the age of 13 Olivia experienced some light pain in her lower back. The pain came and went but in January 2021 it was bad enough for her to visit the GP. In early March of 2021 she was given an MRI of her spine where nothing was found. Her pain steadily got worse and in late April she was diagnosed with CRPS a mental illness where the pain isn't really there. Still the pain worsened and got so severe she would be taken screaming in pain to A&E and persistently being told there was nothing that could be done as the pain was in her head even though her symptoms were changing week on week.

Eventually after Olivia became virtually immobile another MRI was done, this time on her pelvis where a tennis ball size tumor was found. In early June 2021 Olivia was diagnosed with a rare agressive bone/soft tissue cancer, Ewing Sarcoma. She was admitted to hosptial and chemo was started within days. The cancer had spread to her lungs which made her chances of survival smaller. She spent 11 months in hospital. 14 rounds of chemo at Southampton hospital, 3 months of Proton Beam therapy in UCLH and an awful amount of pain and infections. She went through a tremendous amount of discomfort. After the 11 months were over, she rang the end of treatment bell at UCLH and was able to go home at the end of April 2022. Olivia has only had 6 months of remission. We're now in November and the cancer is back.

She has been told that there is no further treatment that will cure her of the cancer and all they can do with chemo is buy her months and possibly buy her no time at all. She is such a brave girl she has decided to not have any further treatment and try to enjoy the life she has left. She has been told that her time left can only be counted in months. We never thought we would be in this situation as Olivia has made so much progress, is back in school and living a near normal life.

Olivia really is an amazing girl but at her heart she is just a normal teenager, she loves gaming, watching Stranger Things, Anime and listening to whatever music She is into at the time.

I've made this page because we aren't a wealthy family and we would love to be able to give her as much as she wants to try to make the last few months of her life as happy as they can be and to enable the family to spend as much time as possible with her in her last month's.

Anything will be greatly appreciated.

She has shown nothing but strength and how to be brave. The world will be at such a loss without her.

Anything left over from Olivia's 'Dream fund' will be donated to charity, including

Younglivesvscancer.org.uk & abbysheroes.org.

Many Thanks, not just for supporting Olivia but even reading this and sharing her story...

Vickie X