BORN FIGHTER
Family, friends and complete strangers raised almost £500,000 to save Kira from the ravages of cancer. Now, in an inspirational dispatch, the 14-year-old tells of her joy at her successful US op and her ambition... to be a professional wrestler!
AS she reveals her plans for the future, Kira Noble breaks into one of her trademark megawatt smile. At the age of 14, the Scots schoolgirl has already battled cancer no fewer than three times. Yet as she recovers from a pioneering operation in the US – which she hopes has removed the last traces of the disease that has plagued her for years – she is finally daring to dream of what she will do next.
As befits such a remarkable and determined young woman, who modestly denies being ‘brave’ in spite of what everyone tells her, her ambition is strikingly bold. Grinning, she says: ‘I’m going to be a professional wrestler.’
For someone who has been left exhausted by round after round of gruelling and invasive treatments and therapies, it might seem an unlikely choice. But after beating the odds so many times already, Kira is confident that anything is possible.
Last night, speaking to The Scottish Mail on Sunday from New York, where she is now out of hospital and recover York. ing before flying home to Edinburgh, she said: ‘I’ve always loved watching wrestling – and now I know I have the fighting spirit needed to succeed. It often takes people by surprise when I tell people what my career choice is. They don’t always see it coming.’
The teenager, from Edinburgh, travelled to New York just two weeks ago in a last-ditch bid to save her life following the return of neuroblastoma, a particularly aggressive childhood cancer.
Touched by her plight and fighting spirit, friends, relatives and even total strangers raised the necessary £350,000 in only three weeks to allow her to have the pioneering operation, conducted by a surgeon who specialises in removing tumours other medics have written off as ‘inoperable’.
Now, with her tumour finally gone, the girl who went from being an active child before her cancer diagnosis at the age of 11 to doing little more than reading or watching TV without feeling washed out, can suddenly plan properly for the future.
Relieved that the seven hours of surgery are now over, Kira adds: ‘I didn’t want to get my hopes up in case my New York surgeon couldn’t manage to get it out. My mum kept telling me how skilled he was, but in the back of my mind I was slightly nervous. I feel so happy now.’
Equally happy is Kira’s mother, Aud, who has accompanied her to New And the 51-year-old also has no doubts about her daughter’s determination. She said: ‘Kira loves WWE wrestling... and is a born fighter. Her journeys with cancer prove this. The steely determination and tenacity will be put to great use as a wrestler. She loves a challenge – look at how she fights back.
‘When she first met the professor of our oncology ward in Edinburgh, he asked her what she hoped to be when she was older. Kira replied, “A professional wrestler”. He looked around the room at everyone who was present ...and asked: “Is this a wind-up?”. Kira’s response, at the age of 11, was, “That almost verges on being disrespectful”. She said it with a big smile
‘ I didn’t get want to my hopes up in case the surgeon could not get it out
on her face, and she told him, “Can you imagine if someone said that to you when you told them that you wanted to become a paediatric oncologist?”.
‘She has a very close relationship with the aforementioned professor... and they often reflect and laugh at this memory.’
With neuroblastoma, the survival rate after relapses is less than 10 per cent – with the statistic worsening every time the cancer comes back.
It was January 2014 when Kira first started to get stabbing pains in her side and abdomen, which doctors believed were caused by growing pains or hor- mones. Over the next seven months her parents took her repeatedly to their local GP but when she was eventually given an ultrasound scan her family were unprepared for the results, which showed she had a huge mass in her abdomen. Further tests, including a biopsy, allowed doctors to confirm a diagnosis and she underwent 15 months of chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy until going into remission in October 2015. But the youngster suffered a new blow in early 2016 when the cancer returned and she had to undergo more surgery and gruelling treatment.
Initially, it looked as if she might have won her second battle, until a routine scan last year showed the tumour was growing again. Kira had more chemotherapy, followed by surgery in January, but surgeons in Edinburgh were unable to remove all of the cancer.
Refusing to give up, her mother and father Ronnie, helped by the charity Solving Kids’ Cancer, tirelessly researched possible treatments and discovered a surgeon who specialised in the complex and costly treatment she needed. But he was based at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and the expected cost for Kira to be treated by him was £340,000.
Mrs Noble said: ‘I would have done anything to help my child and I think any parent would feel the same. We asked him to review Kira’s case and
You see things and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and I say ‘Why not?’
that was very nerve-racking. When he got back to us saying he would do the operation and believed the tumour to be operable, we were absolutely elated. Words can’t describe our relief and that’s when the nerves turned to excitement.’
Complete strangers reached for their wallets, alongside family, friends and the local community, who did everything from bag-packing to barbecuing to raise money. By the time Aud and Kira boarded a flight to the US on May 21, the total stood at £453,826 and is still continuing to rise.
Mrs Noble said: ‘Kira’s had no choice other than to get back in that ring and fight but she does that with grace, dignity and huge determination and never gives up. I think that’s what people have taken to their hearts – her steely determination and non-stop spirit. But, in turn, the total reached in our appeal fund stunned, astounded and blew us away.
‘Kira is now recognised in the street, in shopping centres and in supermarkets. People come up to chat, to congratulate our family on the appeal, to hug her and always to say positive words of encouragement.’
When the operation was over, Mrs Noble recalled how she was taken to a room to meet the surgeon whose first words were a comforting: ‘She’s absolutely fine.’
She said: ‘I loved the way he delivered that message and went on to say he got the tumour out. Such glorious words. Four and a half years that tumour was stuck inside my child – what a wonderful feeling now to know that this world-renowned surgeon “unstuck” it and got it out. He’s my hero forever and I am so grateful for his unsurpassable skills in treating challenging tumours.’
Yet Kira’s treatment is not yet over and an MRI scan has been requested by her Edinburgh oncologist, which will be done in New York this Friday. Further treatment will be put in place to ensure any microscopic neuroblastoma cells are dealt with and another round of chemotherapy will go ahead in Edinburgh on her return, with further treatment currently being discussed by the MSKCC and Edinburgh teams.
After years of patiently dealing with each stage of her treatment with an optimism that has amazed her medical team and peers, she now can’t wait to be declared in remission again so she can get back to school, be with her friends, be a teenager and enjoy life outside hospital.
Top of her list is a family holiday, something the Nobles have not been able to enjoy together for five years.
Mrs Noble said: ‘Never in our wildest dreams did we think the public would take our fundraising appeal to such high heights. The kindness and determination of everyone was tangible and we’ll treasure and cherish it for the rest of our lives. My biggest hope is that the younger kids involved in this campaign will remember how the ripple effect of a community pooling its resources together can be phenomenal.
‘All additional funds raised will be held in Kira’s name for five years. If there’s a need to access these funds for any treatments overseas, they will be Kira’s to use. After this timeframe lapses, if she has no need for them, they will be used by the charity Solving Kids’ Cancer to help another family fighting neuroblastoma.’
For the moment, mother and daughter FaceTime the rest of the family in Scotland every night and Kira has been discharged from hospital to a nearby flat.
There have been some very dark times over the past four years but Kira and her family are convinced she has a new chance of life.
Mrs Noble said: ‘There’s a George Bernard Shaw quote that sums up everything so far and will continue to inspire us – “You see things and you say Why?. But I dream things that never were and I say Why not?”.’
The ripple effect of a community pooling its resources is phenomenal