Lilly's appeal

Lilly's story

In December of 2009, the MacGlashan family had twin girls, Lilly and Molly. But at just six weeks old, baby Lilly was diagnosed with stage 4s neuroblastoma (found in children younger than one year old). Lilly had a large tumour in her adrenal gland while Molly remained perfectly healthy. Doctors thought that she was born with the cancer and that it was treatable and curable. Lilly is currently receiving pioneering treatment in the US. Read her story below...

Before beginning her treatment, Lilly developed the dangerous bacterial infection e-coli from her Hickman line. This postponed her chemotherapy by three weeks – allowing the tumour to grow to nearly 8cm in circumference, particularly large for a baby of eight weeks. The tumour pushed on Lilly’s internal organs and her liver is still misshapen as a result. 

After overcoming the infection, Lilly had four rounds of low dose chemotherapy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. Lilly also had a successful operation to remove the primary tumour in her adrenal gland. At this time, follow up tests showed that Lilly was in remission.

However, just two weeks after being discharged Lilly began vomiting and having fits. After being readmitted to hospital, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to Lilly’s brain and spine. Lilly is the only know case in the world where the stage 4 neuroblastoma has relapsed in the brain. She is also the only child to have neuroblastoma inside her eye (as opposed to retinoblastoma, cancer of the retina).

A spokesperson for Addenbrooke’s Hospital has said, “The pattern of disease which has occurred in Lilly’s case is incredibly rare and is not something which experts in the UK or our international colleagues have seen in any other patient”. As a result of this, Lilly’s case has changed the routine testing protocol for a child with neuroblastoma to include scans of the child’s head.

Lilly’s relapse was treated at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, with high dose chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant and a final round of intense chemotherapy which had her in isolation for five weeks. However, oncologists believed that treatment in the US would improve her chances of survival – at an initially estimated cost from the hospital of £500,000. So far, costs total £850,000. With the NHS unable to fund such treatment, the MacGlashan family, alongside their local community and the Neuroblastoma Alliance, are fundraising for the money to cover the costs of Lilly's treatment at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

On arrival in America, doctors were amazed at how well Lilly was – while her vision seemed to be impaired, she had not sustained any brain damage or suffered mental difficulties as a result of the treatments she has received to date.

Lilly’s treatment started in March 2011. She received radio immunotherapy, a pioneering treatment that targets the tiny specks of cancer in her brain which scans do not pick up. She then received standard immunotherapy treatment for her whole body to target the cancer which has since spread to her chest.

Lilly and her family are travelling regularly to America so Lilly can complete the final cycles of treatment that she needs. We hope that Lilly will be able to complete her treatment by mid-2013. Please give as much as you can to help Lilly and other children like her.

You can help

• You can donate to by clicking the donate now button and selecting Lilly's Appeal from the drop down menu.
• Hold a fundraising event to benefit Lilly's Appeal - contact Claire, our Community Fundraising Manager, on 020 8202 9065 to find out more!
• Donate by text message by texting LYLY33 and an amount £1, £2 £3 £4 £5 or £10 to 70070
• Visit Lilly's fundraising page on Virgin Money Giving
  

Alternatively you can send a cheque made payable to ‘the Lilly MacGlashan Appeal - Neuroblastoma Alliance' and post it to us:

The Neuroblastoma Alliance
3-4 Sentinel Square 
Brent Street 
London 
NW4 2EL

You can also make a payment into the charity bank account in person at a bank, or through your personal online banking. Please contact us for details if you would like to do this.