Mum tells of tot’s tumour battle and backs our appeal to help cancer kids
WHEN Amelie Trotter started school, she asked the other kids: “Where are your tubes? What hospital do you go to?”
The story shows how completely the five-year-old’s cancer has taken over her life.
Amelie’s tumour is in her eye socket. Her parents Iona and Walter know they could one day have to give doctors permission to remove the eye, leaving their little girl disfigured.
But they still hope science will come up with a cure and save her.
And they’re putting all their weight behind the Schiehallion Appeal to raise £500,000 to find new treatments for kids with cancer.
Iona said: “It’s the most difficult thing in the world to see your child suffer and live from scan to scan. We need a cure.”
The appeal, named after the cancer wards at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children, is a partnership between Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and the Daily Record.
The £500,000 would be used to expand the Schiehallion clinical trials centre – the only one of its kind in Scotland – to give more children the hope of a cure.
Amelie was diagnosed when she was three after her eye became badly swollen.
The family were thrilled in 2015 when the tumour shrank under treatment, but it soon returned.
The drug Amelie had been on stopped working and another had to be found. It’s having an effect and the tumour is shrinking again, but the treatment takes its toll on the family.
Amelie suffers gruelling side effects which leave her sick and drained, but the staff at Schiehallion keep her going.
Iona said: “She struggles socially due to her lack of attendance at nursery and the impact of everything she’s been through. But Schiehallion recognise this.
“Amelie goes to play sessions at Teddy Hospital. She gets to dress as a nurse and give her Teddy medicine and scans.
“The doctors and nurses in Schiehallion are amazing. We couldn’t ask for better. Their care and patience is outstanding.
“A clinical trials centre in Glasgow would be fantastic, great to be part of.
“Amelie could be on this treatment for the rest of her life. We have no guarantee her current drug will continue to work.
“A new drug and trials centre would be a huge advantage to us – and so many other children in Scotland. Our children deserve the right medicine.”
To help the appeal, text CHILD to 70707 to donate £5, visit www.GlasgowChildrensHospitalCharity.org/donate or call 0141 212 8750. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE