U.S CANCER TRIAL IS ELLEN’S DREAM

Mum Claire pins hopes for brave tot, 3, on clinical research bid

wanted the bloods repeated and an ultrasound.”

Then on January 2, an MRI scan gave the first sign something was seriously wrong. Claire continued: “The oncologist said, ‘We can’t be certain until she gets the biopsy, but I think it’s neuroblastoma.’ “That was the moment when our lives changed forever. We were devastated.”

A bone marrow biopsy confirmed their worst fears –Ellen had stage four high-risk neuroblastoma.

Claire said: “It’s quite a rare cancer. There’s about 100 children in the UK. It has symptoms that can be brushed off as easily as something like constipation. Because the kids are mostly young it’s hard to catch.

“She never complained of pain anywhere else – like in her bones – but then she was only two.” ollowing diagnosis little Ellen had a central line – she calls Mr Wriggly – put in her chest to get her ‘wriggly medicine’.

So far, she has had eight rounds of chemo and undergone a 13-hour operation to try and remove the tumour.

The brave youngster wound up in intensive care, on a breathing tube with sepsis and fluid in her lungs.

But every day she battles on. Her mum added: “She recovered well and

Fwhen she got home after the surgery she was doing great.

“She’s brilliant, she really is. She’ll be sore and miserable and she just gets up and gets on with it. “If that was me I would probably be lying there all day. She’s very brave.” Ellen’s parents Paddy and Claire said the hardest part has been seeing her miss out. They explained: “She’s missing things we used to do – swimming, holidays, restaurants and will miss out on starting nursery in September.

“She was looking forward to that since her big sister started last year.”

Although the cancer is no longer in her bone marrow, and doctors are hoping to kill the rest with radiotherapy and antibody treatment, neuroblastoma can return.

So the family, including siblings Jack and Ella, both 14, are hoping to get her on a US trial.

Claire added: “There are two clinical trials coming up for neuroblastoma to stop it coming back and they are both in America.

“If we can get her in remission by the end of her treatment here, she could be eligible.

“It would give her a better chance of the cancer not returning.”

You can help Ellen on her journey by donating at www.justgiving.com/ campaigns/charity/solvingkidscancer/ellentreanor

FIGHT Ellen Treanor and mum Claire