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Michelle Watson

Alicia Dixon

Total raised

£4,151.64

+ £920.41 Gift Aid

83%% Complete
83% of the £5,000.00 target
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To fight the devastation left by this disease

My Story

Alicia was born 15th April 2000 , she lived in Torquay Devon . Alicia was a beautiful, fun, loving little girl who loved life and was great fun to be with, she was a very unique and special girl . Until the start of October 2009 Alicia was like any other little girl enjoying life looking forward to being a teenager, teasing boys with her friends, Swimming, playing Football, Tae kwon do, Netball, and Shopping. Then without warning Alicia's face on the lift side started to not work properly , whereby when she smiled the right face compensated her left side. I took her to the local hospital , the hospital diagnosed Bells Palsy which is not that common in children. Alicia was given antibiotics and sent home . over a period of a few weeks the condition improved but only for a short time, it reappeared I took her straight back to the hospital they treated her again for the same condition. approximately a month later I noticed a large pink lump in Alicia ear canal, I thought Alicia ear drum had collapsed . Again the went straight to the hospital diagnosed as a polyp given antibacterial ear drops and sent home . Over the following month the polyp got slightly bigger, eventually and finally Alicia was admitted to hospital to the polyp removed. Histology on the polyp showed that it was not a polyp but a Tumor in the ear canal. The tumor was a malignant Rhabdomyosarcoma . The shock and horror for me as a parent was indescribable. That week Alicia went for CT and an MRI scans. We were told the tumor was stage Iv and had spread to her pelvis, lungs and practically most of the left side of her face. Rhabdomyosarcoma is a cancerous malignant tumor of the muscles that are attached to the bones, only about 60 children a year are diagnosed , usually boys. Alicia was admitted to Bristol Children's hospital where she started a six month course of chemotherapy and Radiotherapy. All was going well the chemotherapy shrunk the tumor and it disappeared. The following June Alicia had epileptic fit and was admitted to Exeter Children's hospital . Alicia had another scan and the result was that the tumor had returned to he side of her brain, she was admitted to Frenchay hospital in Bristol for an operation to have the tumor removed , she underwent a 9hr operation which was successful and she recovered well, she was so strong and amazing in how she recovered the doctors were also impressed. Alicia was determined to go to her school leavers prom which was absolutely incredible 3 weeks after the operation. It was so fantastic seeing her doing an being part of normal enjoyable everyday experiences and it so much to her. Alicia carried on in remission doing very well, we all thought that she would beat this terrible cruel disease. We even managed a girls holiday in Spain with Auntie Debbie where she was determined to ride a bike every day and managed to go kayaking she had so much fun and it was lovely to see her doing the things she loved. Alicia and everyone battled on fighting everyday , we were all very determined that no matter what she would get better , because she was surrounded by confident positive people, it made her also confident and positive, she was going to beat this no matter what. September 2011 Alicia started her secondary school and was determined to go every day, she didn't want to miss a day of school, she just wanted to be her normal self again. Every morning she would jump out of bed at 7am to go to school, she must of felt ill the (the after effects of her treatment) . Just after Christmas 2012 Alicia started to feel ill again, she was very sick and couldn't eat. We took her to the hospital in Exeter, at first the doctors thought it could be the chemotherapy. But after a week of sickness and losing weight they decide to give her a CT and MRI scan . The scans showed that the cancer had returned and had spread into her neck and stem cells. that's when the doctors told us the dreaded news that Alicia my beautiful little girl had only weeks to live. From that moment on no words can describe how we felt, but we all put a brave face on for Alicia so she'd think it was just another routine hospital visit that she'd gotten used to in the last 2 years. Alicia died peacefully on the 26th January 2012 at Exeter hospital nursed to the end by her loving devoted parents .

CAUSE

Children & Young People

Every day 12 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer in the UK. The good news is that improvements in treatments mean more children and young people are surviving cancer than ever before. But we still need to do more. With your help we will find new, better and kinder treatments for children and young people diagnosed with cancer. Donate now and help beat children’s cancers sooner.

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Total raised£4,151.64
Online£4,151.64
Offline£0.00

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