Poppy

Poppy’s story 

In April 2020, Poppy’s little brother Oscar was born and around this time she started complaining of pain in her legs. She was increasingly more tired and lethargic and gradually started eating less. She became clingy and depressed, which the family put down to jealousy and confusion as she'd just become a big sister - the world was in lockdown due to the global pandemic.

As her leg pain got worse Poppy’s mum, Claire, eventually contacted the GP and had a telephone appointment due to COVID restrictions. A blood test was arranged at Bedford hospital, which confirmed an iron deficiency. A few days later the family were told their GP wanted to see Poppy in person as he was concerned after reviewing her blood test results in more detail.   

After being checked over, she was immediately sent to see a paediatrician at Bedford hospital for more tests and scans. A chest X-ray finally revealed a large tumour at the back left-hand side of Poppy’s chest cavity, wrapped around her heart and pushing against one of her lungs. Her parents were told straight away that it was cancer.   

Poppy and her dad, Ross, were sent in an ambulance that night to Addenbrooke's whilst Claire stayed at home with three-month-old Oscar.

“I didn't sleep a wink that night, it was the worst night of my life,” says Claire.   

A biopsy and scans revealed that the cancer had spread all over her body and Poppy was officially diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma on 24th July 2020, just weeks before her 5th birthday. 

Treatment

Since her diagnosis in July 2020, Poppy has endured 14 rounds of chemotherapy with side effects such as sickness and hair loss. She has had one of her ovaries removed and preserved for the future and a stem cell harvest for future use. She's had countless general anaesthetics, injections, bone marrow biopsies, CT and MIBG scans and relies on tube feeds as her main source of nutrition as her appetite has decreased and she often feels nauseous.   

Chemotherapy cleared a lot of the cancer cells but not enough to move onto the next stage of treatment. Due to Poppy having ‘refractory’ disease, she enrolled on the MiNivAn clinical trial at UCLH and Southampton Hospital with the hope of clearing even more of the cancer cells.  

Poppy responded well to the trial, which reduced 33 spots of disease down to just three. Once she completed the trial, Poppy went back onto the standard frontline treatment path and had surgery, high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell rescue, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. In December 2022, end of treatment scans showed that Poppy was 'no evidence of active disease'.

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

_{Funds raised will go towards helping Poppy and her family. If Poppy 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 high-risk neuroblastoma, like Poppy, the survival rate is much lower than other childhood cancers. Upon relapse, this rate reduces even further.}