A young girl has been given just months to live after getting a second heartbreaking cancer diagnosis. Lily Harley, 3, was tragically told by doctors that her Ependymomas cancer had returned.
Grimsby Live reports that the youngster was diagnosed with the disease following a change in her behaviour during Christmas 2021. Her dad, Josh, says his daughter was "walking strangely" with her head to the side as he initially thought she had just slept badly.
He said: "During Christmas 2021, we were with my family and they noticed that Lily was acting differently. Her head was tilted and she was walking strangely. At the time, we thought she'd just slept on her neck funny, but we soon saw that something wasn't quite right."
After taking her to hospital, the Grimsby parents were told it was nothing to worry about and that she had most likely sprained something in her neck. However, when things didn't improve for Lily, the family soon found themselves back at the hospital. After an MRI, it was discovered she had a rare form of cancer, Ependymomas, which grows on the brain and spinal cord, but is hardly ever seen in children.
Josh added: "Lily went for a CT scan which didn't pick anything up straight away, but we were told something wasn't right and so she would have to have an MRI. It was then that we found she had a tumour at the bottom of her skull just above her spinal cord."
Following the discovery, the family were sent straight to Sheffield Children's Hospital where Lily had two 10-hour operations to remove the tumour. Having beaten the cancer, Lily was subsequently asked to be part of a clinical trial to help figure out how to treat this type of cancer in young children.
Josh and Emily were told Lily would need to travel to Germany for the experimental treatment and in the end she spent six weeks in the Essen. During this time, Lily had 32 sessions of treatment and the family came home in April 2022. Later on in the year, Lily went for a routine check up to see how the treatment was working, which showed she was all clear.
However, last week, the three-year-old went for the same check up, only to be told something completely different. The MRI had tragically picked up a number of new tumours at the base of her back, on her chest and in parts of her brain fluid. This time round, sadly the cancer can't be treated.
Josh said: "When they told us, Emily and I were devastated. Me being a bloke, it sort of went in one ear and out the other, I was trying to listen to what we were being told.
"The hardest part of it all has been telling our family though. When you get the news you try to digest it and you can cope with that, but telling everyone was horrible, especially as we thought the MRI would come back clear."
The father says he is already struggling to think about the implications of losing his daughter. Josh added: "It overcomes me sometimes. I've spoken to Emily about how we're going to cope and we've already decided we'll need to move as there will be too many bad memories in here.
"We both said that when she goes there is just no chance we can stay here. We've got no other kids which makes the whole thing even more heart breaking. It will take time to get used to not having her here, especially when I come home from work and she isn't there waiting for me."
In wake of the tragic news, the family have set up a GoFundMe page to try and make what time Emily has left even more special. The fund now sits at over £40,000, with Josh and Emily stunned at a loss for words over the touching donations.
Josh said: "Originally, we were just doing it to try get her to Disneyland, but the generosity of people has just been amazing. "We're hoping to do so much more with the money people have donated, including pay for her funeral, as much as I don't want to think about that right now.
"Someone has also kindly offered to take her for a flight in their helicopter over wherever she wants to go. I'm hoping, as well as giving her the best send off we can, this goes some way to raising awareness about Lily's cancer and shows how dangerous it is."
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