Freya's campaign

Despite everything she has endured - gruelling treatments, long hospital stays, and constant setbacks - Freya continues to face each day with a radiant smile and an unshakeable zest for life. She never complains. She simply gets on with it, showing a resilience that belies her age.

A true social butterfly, Freya has many friends both in and out of school, but her closest companion - her partner in crime - is her identical twin sister, Alice. Their bond is unbreakable and full of mischief, laughter, and unconditional love.

Freya is sweet, funny, and caring, with a cheeky sense of humour that lifts the spirits of everyone around her. In her cherished downtime, she loves nothing more than snuggling on the sofa with her dog Bella, bouncing on the trampoline in the garden, enjoying girly sleepovers, or Facetiming her friends while playing games on her iPad. Most recently, Freya has discovered a new passion - horse riding - which she’s taken to with immense joy and enthusiasm.

Freya's story

Debbie noticed that Freya was constipated and had a small bulge that would occasionally appear in her tummy. Concerned, she took Freya to their local walk-in centre. After a physical examination, the nurse didn’t detect anything abnormal and suggested the bulge might be an umbilical hernia, advising increased fluid intake to help with the constipation. Although the explanation didn’t fully ease Debbie’s concerns, she tried to put them to rest.

By November, with the bulge still intermittently visible, Debbie booked an appointment with their GP, set for two weeks later. However, just one week after, Freya woke up with a slightly swollen eye, and by the next morning, could barely open it. Alarmed, the family returned to the walk-in centre and were urgently referred to their local hospital with suspected periorbital cellulitis.

At Queen’s Hospital Burton, doctors carried out a thorough examination. The abdominal bulge that had been troubling Debbie was examined again, and this time, an ultrasound revealed devastating news: the lump in Freya’s tummy was highly suspicious for neuroblastoma.

Within 24 hours, the family were transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where a series of urgent tests confirmed every parent’s worst fear - Freya had stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to her collarbone, hips, and pelvis.

Treatment so far

Since her diagnosis in December 2022, Freya has bravely endured an intense and unrelenting treatment regimen. This has included countless blood and platelet transfusions, daily G-CSF injections, bone marrow aspirates and trephines, and feeding via a nasogastric tube. She has also undergone a relentless series of imaging procedures - x-rays, MRIs, and MIBG scans - all vital in tracking the progression of her illness.

The treatment’s aggressiveness has come with harrowing side effects: persistent vomiting and diarrhoea, nerve and joint pain, fatigue, and a loss of high-frequency hearing. Walking any significant distance has become a struggle, leaving her dependent on a wheelchair. The initial rounds of chemotherapy caused Freya to lose her beautiful long blonde hair and have sadly increased her risk of developing secondary cancers in the future.

She also faced major surgery to remove the primary tumour. During the procedure, a sample of her ovarian tissue was frozen - preserving a hopeful possibility of becoming a mother one day.

Every stage of this journey has confronted her parents with impossible decisions - each one made under the heavy shadow of uncertainty, fear, and love. The toll on Freya’s small, resilient body has been immense, and the emotional burden on those who love her most is equally deep.

During Freya’s stem cell transplant, the family endured one of their most challenging chapters - seven long weeks spent apart. Both parents took extended time off work to 'do shifts' at the hospital, carefully coordinating to ensure that Freya and her sister Alice could continue feeling the warmth and comfort of time with each parent.

This period was made even more difficult when Freya developed severe Veno-occlusive disease (VOD), a serious and potentially life-threatening complication that can occur during this stage of treatment. The physical toll on Freya was immense - but so too was the emotional strain on her family, watching her battle such a dangerous condition while being torn between hospital corridors and home.

Relapse

After 15 gruelling months of frontline treatment, Freya completed her therapy in March 2024. But just as a sense of relief began to settle in, end-of-treatment scans revealed a new and devastating development - lesions in her pancreatic area, on the opposite side of where the original tumour had been. A biopsy confirmed what everyone had feared: a recurrence of neuroblastoma.

In May 2024, Freya began BIT chemotherapy. While there was a small initial response, the treatment ultimately failed to eliminate the disease. Then, in October, she faced her second major surgery - this time to remove the tumour from her pancreas. The operation was extensive, resulting in the loss of her spleen and leaving her with only half of her pancreas.

There was a flicker of hope - her first post-op scan showed no evidence of disease (NED), offering a precious moment of reassurance. But sadly, it didn’t last. At her scheduled scan in March 2025, an area of restricted diffusion was identified alarmingly close to the site of the previous lesions. Two further scans confirmed what no one wanted to believe: the neuroblastoma had returned once again.

Freya’s treatment has had a profound impact on her entire family, but especially on her twin sister, Alice. While Alice is physically able to do many things her sister cannot, she often chooses not to, in quiet solidarity - avoiding activities that might make Freya feel left behind. It’s a deeply empathetic bond that speaks volumes about their connection.

Since her original diagnosis in December 2022, Freya has missed a significant amount of school and precious time with her friends. Now, facing treatment for the third time, the isolation has only deepened - separating her further from the rhythms of daily life that most children her age enjoy.

Following her relapse in March 2024, Shaun and Debbie made the difficult but vital decision to begin fundraising for Freya. They understood all too well the relentless nature of neuroblastoma and the lack of many curative options once the disease returns. Although the NHS currently supports promising clinical trials for relapsed neuroblastoma, other options may only be available outside the UK. Some of these clinical trials come with staggering costs, often running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

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_{Solving Kids' Cancer UK's children's fundraising campaigns} 

_{Funds raised will go towards helping Freya and her family. If Freya no longer needs the funds or is in remission five years post the end of successful treatment, the funds will be used to support other children and families affected by neuroblastoma through our activities. For children with relapsed high-risk neuroblastoma, like Freya, the survival rate is much lower than other childhood cancers.}