Carys Bradshaw defied doctors to live more than a year but battle continues
A LITTLE girl given a just year to live has defied doctors to pass the heartbreaking milestone. However, eight year-old Carys Bradshaw is facing a new battle, after doctors discovered her brain tumour has spread.
Manly
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A LITTLE girl given a just year to live has defied doctors to pass the heartbreaking milestone.
However, eight year-old Carys Bradshaw is facing a new battle, after doctors discovered her brain tumour has spread.
The quarter of a million dollar revolutionary ‘robot’ procedure she’s having has been put on hold while she has radiotherapy.
“There is still a long way to go,” said mum Rachel, 39 from Belrose.
As reported in the Manly Daily, the Manly West Primary School student, who is also a Queenscliff Nipper, started getting headaches and kept being sick in December 2016.
A GP sent her for an MRI scan and she was diagnosed with a rare aggressive brain cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, or DIPG.
There’s no cure, its inoperable and doesn't respond to normal chemotherapy.
She wasn’t expected to live more than 12 months.
However, her devastated parents Rachel and Jack who also have a younger daughter, Maya, found a trial London in their native UK, and the northern beaches community help raise more than $300,000 for the treatment.
It uses revolutionary, robot-led technology to insert tiny catheters, less than half a millimetre in thickness, into the tumour deep within the brain stem to deliver chemotherapy drugs.
It took nine hours to insert the devices into her head.
Rachel gave up her job as a legal secretary to relocate with her daughter to the UK.
So far the family has spent $250,000 on the medical bills.
Mrs Bradshaw said while she’s relieved her beloved daughter has beaten the odds given to her at diagnosis, the future remains uncertain.
“Carys had six infusions and the tumour improved after each one,” she said.
“However in November they detected another lesion in a different part of the brain so we are currently dealing with that with radiotherapy.
“Doctors are hoping that the radiotherapy halts the growth of the new lesion and if so the plan is to do more infusions.”
Cary’s walking and speech have also been affected.
However, she has joined Girl Guide group, Brownies, and has also been horse riding.
Her mum wrote on an update on the family’s fundraising page: “She is still the funny, loving, caring, strong and beautiful little girl she always has been. Not once has she ever complained.
“As a mum there are no words that can describe the raw heartbreak at watching your child suffer and physically fade before your eyes.”
The family wants more funding to be put into children’s brain cancers.
Details: gofundme.com/caringforcarys