LITTLE SKYLA, 5, CAN’T PLAY – IT COULD KILL HER
A N ENERGETIC little girl has been told she can no longer play with her friends – because one small cut or bruise could kill her. Skyla Budding, from Merthyr Tydfil, suffers with a rare disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) which means her blood doesn’t clot and leads to excessive bleeding.
Her mum Sarah Markham says she’s had no choice but to stop the active five-year-old from enjoying some of her favourite hobbies.
“It was really important that Skyla didn’t do anything that would cause her to bruise or to cut herself,” she said.
“So even when we weren’t in hospital having treatment, she still couldn’t do any of the things that she loves to do, like riding on her bike or jumping on the trampoline.
“Even playing in the yard – on the days she was well enough to go to school – was too dangerous, so she’d have to sit on her own while the other children played.
“Witnessing that as her mum made my heart feel like it was going to break.”
Skyla, a pupil at Caedraw Primary School, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) when she was just four years old.
Sarah said the only outward sign something might be wrong was her daughter’s tendency to bruise very easily.
But doctors referred Skyla to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff when her blood count was found to be incredibly low.
It was there, after a biopsy of her bone marrow, that Skyla’s parents were given the heartbreaking leukaemia diagnosis.
Sarah added: “The doctors couldn’t believe it when I told them Skyla had never really been ill, as she didn’t really have an immune system.
“To have my little girl’s name associated with the biggest of words – cancer – was awful.
“One minute we were living this normal life and the next everything was completely different.
“We were in hospital with our sick child being told that she had two-and-a-half years of chemotherapy ahead of her. ”
Skyla started chemotherapy almost immediately. But then her platelet levels started to drop way below the normal range.
In June she was diagnosed with (ITP), a rare disorder that can cause excessive bruising and bleeding due to the unusually low platelet levels.
She started receiving platelet transfusions alongside her chemotherapy but they only worked for a few days each time.
Disaster struck just days later, when Skyla was sent home from school with a suspected stomach bug. “Every sip of water she was vomiting up,” said Sarah.
Sarah took Skyla back to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, where she was put on a drip and admitted. By the morning her condition had deteriorated.
Sarah said: “When we arrived we were met at the door by the consultant, who took us to a room and explained that scan results had revealed a huge bleed on Skyla’s brain.
“It’s basically the worst-case scenario for someone with ITP.
“I was so scared that I was shaking and felt like I was going to be sick.”
The five-year-old was attached to a device which monitors the pressure the bleed was creating on her skull, in the hope that it would gradually decrease.
But then Sarah, along with Skyla’s dad Anthony, were told emergency surgery would be needed to remove part of her skull to alleviate the pressure on her brain.
“I knew by the tone of the doctor’s voice that things weren’t looking good.
“I spent that whole time Skyla was in surgery preparing myself for them to walk in and say that we’d lost her and wondering whether her baby sister, Billie, would even remember her.”
After four agonising hours Skyla returned from her operation on a life support machine.
The surgeons had found the bleed in the optical part of her brain. “The care Skyla received in critical care was astonishing,” Sarah said. “During the first few days the specialist nurses were constantly on the go to care for my daughter. It was a real eyeopener.”
Skyla was unconscious in intensive care for a week but woke up on Sarah’s birthday.
She is now back on Rainbow Ward ready to restart chemotherapy. “Skyla lost her left field vision as a result of the bleed,” said Sarah. “Although I was heartbroken by this, I’m just thankful she’s alive and could never thank the neurosurgeon that operated on her enough.”
The Noah’s Ark Charity, which raises money for the children’s hospital, is calling on families to sign up to its 3k or 10k Family Fun Walk in Cardiff Bay on Sunday, September 17.
Registration for the event costs £5 a person, which includes a free T-shirt and bottle of water.
Fancy dress is optional and there will be various activities to keep little walkers entertained on the day.
The route is completely accessible pushchairs and wheelchair users.
To sign up visit https:// noahsarkcharity.org/events/ familyfunwalk2017/ to