LATEST NEWS

Lily's Story

“Lily Emma Beswick was born at home on 10th February 2011. She has two older brothers called Oliver & Rowan and an older sister, Amy, who all love Lily dearly.

Two weeks after her first birthday we found a lump on her left thigh. It was about the size of a small egg. It appeared overnight.

Our GP referred us to the Royal Bolton Hospital for a couple of days to treat Lily for an infection. However, after further tests and an ultra sound scan, we were told the lump was a tumour and they were referring us to the Oncology Department.

Terrified, we turned up at The Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital on 26th February 2012 and our journey into an unknown world began.

Lily was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue tumour mainly found in boys. She started a six month course of chemotherapy and had surgery in June to remove the tumour.

It wasn’t just the cancer we had to cope with. Lily was admitted for infected and open wounds, tonsillitis, a couple of raised temperatures and even chickenpox.

Despite everything, Lily seemed to be doing well and we were thrilled to see her making progress. Lily sailed through her treatment and on 12th September she completed her last course of chemotherapy. We were so happy to be entering into the maintenance stage.

On the 17th October, just over a month after leaving hospital, Lily had a temperature and was admitted to hospital for a couple of days to be treated for an infection. Everything went ok and we came home the day before Oliver’s birthday. However, a week later Lily’s temperature had risen again and we were back in hospital. This time she had developed a cough. More tests were done and on 30th October we were given the devastating news that Lily had relapsed and they had found four more tumours on her lungs. The cancer was back.

Lily was back on Ward 84 the following day to start more chemotherapy, but her breathing was deteriorating fast and she was put on oxygen. A few days later Lily was transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and put onto a life support machine to help with her breathing.

Lily stayed there for three weeks. We waited, hoping for some sign she was getting better. Eventually we learned that even if the chemo was successful in treating the tumours, they had caused so much damage that Lily would never recover. Lily’s condition began to deteriorate, and it was with great sadness we made the hardest decision of our lives. We agreed that her life support should be removed.

On 22nd November Lily died in my arms with her daddy at her side. My beautiful daughter was just 21 months old.”

Clair Beswick
Lily’s mother

JOSH'S STORY

JOSH'S STORY

In February of 2021, Josh’s parents noticed he was getting very pale. What was originally thought to...

Read More

Jill's Charity Night Success

Jill's Charity Night Success

What a whopper of a night -  Friday 20th May, our ambassador Isla's mum Jill and family hosted...

Read More

Thank You Lee Mossop, Former Captain of Salford Red Devils

Thank You Lee Mossop, Former Captain of Salford Red Devils

We want to say a huge thank you to Lee Mossop, former Captain of RFL Salford Red...

Read More

Newsletter Sign Up