Parents fight to save brain tumour girl, 3
THE heartbroken parents of a little girl who has been given months to live but doesn’t even know she is ill have made an emotional plea for help.
Isabella Ortiz, three, from Bramhall, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour - diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma - in June last year and given 12 months to live.
Her parents Victor Ortiz and Assunta Trapanese, 39 and 42, were told there is no known cure and as the tumour grows their daughter will lose her mobility, speech, ability to eat and eventually she won’t be able to breathe for herself.
But they have been given hope by a type of treatment available in Mexico that has met with some success.
And, as Isabella continues to behave like a normal little girl, her parents face a desperate race against time to raise the £350,000 necessary to try and save her life.
Victor said: “When we were told, we were devastated, the world came to a standstill and we didn’t know what to do. We came out of the meeting and burst into tears.
“We said what can we do to save Isabella’s life? We will do anything, but they said there was nothing that anyone could do. But Isabella is very easy-going, she is so young, she doesn’t ask questions and doesn’t even know she is ill.
“She is very happy and giggles all the time. She is cheeky and loves playing as a princess.”
Isabella’s brain stem tumour, which has a diameter of around 6cm, is in the part of the brain that controls vital functions such as movement and the senses.
This means it cannot be removed as the risk of damage is too high. The first sign of Isabella’s illness came in December 2016 when she developed a squint but it was only after a scan the following June that the cause was revealed.
She is currently receiving chemotherapy and undergoing a clinical trial at Alder Hey Hospital. But it is unclear if this is working and in the meantime worrying signs - such as now developing a limp - show her condition is progressing.
The treatment at Hospital Los Angeles, in Monterrey, Mexico, is a more experimental form of customised chemotherapy made possible by more relaxed medical rules in the country.
Victor, of Albany Road, says seriously-ill children have already improved through it. But it would cost £30,000 for each of the recommended 10 doses of treatment and these would be a month apart so require a long stay in Mexico.
Victor said: “Children have been saved. We are busy making memories but this gives us hope there is something out there that we can try to save Isabella’s life.” »»To donate visit chuffed.org/project/fightingcancer-with-princessisabella