Mother’s photo alert after medics missed girl’s cancer for a year
A MUM has released a shocking photograph to warn other parents after her daughter’s life-threatening cancer was misdiagnosed as constipation.
Little Dulcie O’kelly’s stomach swelled to gigantic proportions with a tumour that weighed more than a kilo.
But for a year she was repeatedly diagnosed with constipation when mum Debbie took her to the doctor.
Dulcie, now five, had been complaining of tummy pains. But she was never sent for a scan, which would have revealed the 6in by 5in stomach tumour.
Eventually she was diagnosed in January this year and is currently undergoing chemotherapy.
Debbie has now started an awareness campaign showing the photos of Dulcie’s swollen stomach.
The 39-year-old, who lives in Telford,
Shropshire, said: “The diagnosis was such a shock. Our entire world crashed around us and never in a million years did we suspect it was cancer.
“The photos of
Dulcie’s stomach are really upsetting, but if it can save just one child going through what Dulcie has, then it will be worth it.”
Dulcie first started complaining of pain in January last year and her parents took her to the GP. She was said to have constipation and sent home several times over the following month.
Debbie tried to push for more answers, believing she had some sort of food intolerance, but it wasn’t until November that Dulcie eventually had the scan which revealed the tumour.
A biopsy the following month showed that she had neuroblastoma – an aggressive cancer that affects around 100 children a year in the UK.
It has spread to her pelvis, bone marrow, legs and spine.
Debbie said: “When we got the diagnosis I cried in disbelief, how can my daughter have cancer? We have gone through every emotion possible.”
Almost half of neuroblastomas are a type that can return despite intensive treatment.with only 67 per cent of patients in England surviving five years or more, neuroblastoma has one of the lowest survival rates of all childhood cancers.
Debbie added: “We have been told that her cancer is treatable. We need to stop the tumour in her stomach growing and spreading further around her body.”
She added: “The symptoms I want to make other parents aware of include a swollen tummy and constipation... I want to raise as much awareness as possible of this terrible disease because it was easily mistaken for something else.”
The family have launched a fundraising appeal to pay for treatment in the US if the UK treatment does not work.
Follow Dulcie’s journey on Instagram @dulcies_neuroblastoma_journey