Olivia

Olivia’s story  

Olivia was born on Christmas Eve in 2004. A much longed-for first child for Lauren and Steven. 

Olivia was a gadget geek and tomboy when it came to games and playing. She loved rough and tumble games with her dad, Steven, and was a daddy’s girl. But if anything was wrong, or anyone needed sorting out, she would turn to her mum. Olivia had the look of her dad but her mum’s temperament. 

Olivia had reached all her developmental milestones before her parents noticed that she was limping and had a series of back pains along with fatigue. 

At only four years old, Olivia was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, a particularly aggressive childhood cancer.

Olivia received the general protocol of treatment for neuroblastoma at that time at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and Glasgow’s Yorkhill Hospital. This included high-dose chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and further chemotherapy due to the tumour's remaining presence. 

Once the tumours had gone, Olivia’s parents took her to Germany to receive immunotherapy treatment which was not yet available in the UK. Sadly, whilst receiving the 5th cycle of immunotherapy, the clinicians in Germany discovered that Olivia had relapsed in her ribs. This brought the treatment to an end. 

Olivia started another German treatment called RIST therapy; another form of chemotherapy. This was a tough regime for Olivia and meant that she was often hospitalised due to side effects and infections. It helped her for several months by shrinking the tumours, but soon they had spread, so she could no longer receive the treatment. 

By March 2012, scans revealed that Olivia’s disease had spread extensively throughout the spine, ribs and pelvis area, including the shoulder blade. Steven and Lauren continued giving Olivia photodynamic therapy every day along with ultrasound treatment, infra-red sauna and a range of vitamins. Doctors told the family that Olivia’s disease could never be cured. 

In May 2012, Olivia’s health deteriorated, and she was confined to a bed in seemingly uncontrollable pain. With funds raised through another neuroblastoma charity at that time, Lauren and Steven were able to fly Olivia to Mexico for treatment, the focus being to do all they could to reduce Olivia’s pain and to give her a more comfortable and controlled quality of life. There were complications during the treatment and Olivia was flown home on life support. 

Olivia passed away with her family by her side on 29th June 2012. 

Losing Olivia shattered the family, they will love and miss her forever. Olivia has a younger sister, Jessica and younger brothers, Oliver and Jakob. While the family try the best they can after such trauma, Lauren and Steven say things will never feel the same again. 

_{Donations made in loving memory of children} 

_{Funds raised in loving memory of Olivia will be used to support other children like Olivia and their families through Solving Kids' Cancer UK's activities. Any funds raised through a previous fundraising campaign for access to treatment which were not spent on the child's treatment and pastoral needs are used to support other children and families through Solving Kids' Cancer UK's activities.}