A young girl from the Bristol area has been battling cancer after being given a shock diagnosis this year. Seven-year-old Bella from Little Stoke has been receiving treatment for the disease for several months.
In November 2021, her parents Becca and Ryan Schermuly noticed a dark spot in her mouth. They took her to the dentists, who referred her to hospital for an MRI scan.
In January, they were told that it was a vascular malformation and that they should keep an eye on it and have it reviewed in six months. However, the spot began to ulcerate and became red, and she was put on antibiotics.
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By April, Bella's parents noticed that there was a huge lump in the back of her mouth, and they took her into the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. Bella has surgery to remove the lump and it was sent off for testing - and a few weeks later her parents were told that the lump was a soft tissue sarcoma, and that Bella would need to be treated for cancer.
Since then, she has been undergoing chemotherapy, but her mum says she has been "very strong and very brave". "Considering what she's had done, all the surgeries and the scans, she's doing so well.
"She's still happy, smiley, she wants to see her friends which is nice. She's doing really well in herself, she's a lot stronger than I ever imagined she would be.
"When you look at her, obviously she hasn't got any hair, but you wouldn't think she's going through what she's going through by looking at her." The 31-year-old nurse said that for her and her partner Ryan, 38, it has been tough to adjust to their daughter being unwell.
"It's hard. Obviously it's something you never think that you're going to have to go through, but we're trying the best we can."
Becca says that it has also been difficult for Bella's younger brother Charlie, 5, to understand what is happening with his sister, as his parents are trying to protect him from hearing about it. "He doesn't fully understand what's happening with Bella, because he can't go into hospital, he can't see her.
"Every now and again he will say, 'it's not fair, Bella doesn't have to go to school', little things like that. He doesn't see it from our side of things because we know what she's going through, but he doesn't.
"It's hard for him to understand why Bella's getting special treatment in his eyes when she's not. I would want nothing more for Bella than for her to go to school and do normal stuff."
Bella's tumour has now shrunk by two thirds thanks to the treatment, and the next step is for her to receive radiotherapy - although the plans could change. But in the mean time, her family have had lots of support from people around them - friends, family and the wider Bristol community.
People have been chipping in to help the Schermuly's, while a fundraiser to support them has raised over £7,500. One of the family friends involved in these efforts is Kelly Cotchobos, who told Bristol Live: "Obviously it was a really massive shock when they got those results, awful, world shattering to them. Not just to them - to friends, to family, to the whole community that know Bella. It's been a really tough journey for Bella."
To support the fundraising effort, friends of the family have climbed Pen y Fan in Wales, and there are plans to climb the Brecon Beacons in autumn of this year. They have also provided food boxes once a month for when Becca and Ryan have to stay at the hospital unexpectedly, while a post box has also been set up in Bell's school to allow her friends to write her letters.
To view the fundraiser, click here.
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