Fundraising efforts are in full swing for a nine-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer known as Ewing sarcoma.
Maisie-Leigh Marsden, from Lower Penwortham, was initially told by doctors at Royal Preston Hospital that the pain she was experiencing in her wrist and arm was just a sprain.
But when a lump appeared on her forearm three months later, she was referred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Manchester and then on to a specialist unit in Birmingham where the frightening cancer diagnosis was confirmed.
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Now, family and friends are rallying round to raise money as her parents, Aimee and Chris Marsden, support their daughter through nine rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery, then another five rounds, with scans along the way.
Maisie-Leigh’s grandma, Christine Hodgett, along with colleagues at the Aldi supermarket in Longridge, did their bit over the Easter weekend with a raffle that raised almost £600 for the cause.
Christine said: “It all started when Maisie-Leigh fell off her bike, as kids do, and she was taken to Royal Preston. They sent her for an X-ray but found nothing and she then spent the next eight weeks crying and saying she was in pain. That’s when a lump appeared on her arm and she was referred to Alder Hey and then onto Birmingham.
“Ewing sarcoma is extremely rare and she now faces nine courses of chemotherapy before she undergoes limb salvage surgery, which is when they take the tumour out and rebuild her arm from the inside out.”
Christine described her granddaughter as a ‘bouncy’ character but admitted the chemotherapy was taking its toll.
She said: “She’s on a drip 24-hours-a-day and the chemotherapy is making her really sick. She’s had a really rough day after the latest treatment and was understandably upset, but we’re all there to support her.”
Money raised will go to support the family as they take her back and forth from Penwortham to Birmingham for chemotherapy, as well as buying other essentials which will make Maisie-Leigh’s treatment as comfortable as it can be.
Christine, who is working extra shifts in order to help provide for her daughter and the family, praised her colleagues at Longridge Aldi for the support they had shown, both in terms of fundraising or flexibility if she needed to take time out to be with Maisie-Leigh.
She added: “The prognosis for Maisie-Leigh is really good because they have caught it early, so the main thing now is to support them as much as we can.”
If you want to support the fundraising efforts for Maisie-Leigh you can visit the GoFundMe page set up by her mum, Aimee.
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