Olivia's Story

Olivia was born on the 13th of August 2016. A happy and healthy baby girl who was very eager to see the world.

The first few months of life was great, Mile stones were being met and she was genuinely a very bubbly baby up until she was about 5-6 months old when her mum noticed a lump growing behind her right ear, feeling fatigue and small bruising’s on her legs.

Over the next month Olivia would be taken to the GP for check-ups for the new findings but unfortunately all the signs were missed. And was eventually rushed to hospital where a biopsy was done. In 2017, at only 7 month old Olivia was diagnosed with Stage 4 ALL Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

Her battle was tough and many days were touch and go but through love, prayer and the fantastic help from Great Ormond Hospital Olivia got to ring the bell after many months of chemotherapy.

Unfortunately the battle wasn’t over!. And after just 2 months of being in the all clear the Cancer was BACK.

This time the fight was different and her only hope of survival was to have a bone marrow transplant. The donor list was a long shot and she had a very slim chance at getting a match in time as this time the leukaemia had come back full force Olivia was one of the first children in the Uk to use the portable Blinatumomab machine which helped slow the manifesting cancer cells.

The Doctors tested our family which at the time was her mum, dad and brother Elijah. According to statistics, siblings are a 1 in ten match. Luckily the one sibling that she had was a perfect match.

For the next 2 months Olivia’s body went through hell and back accepting the transplant but she never gave up.

6 years has past and Olivia has been cancer free and although she has been left with a few long term and permanent health issues she is able to live her life to the fullest.

Thank you to everyone at Ben’s foundation for allowing us this break away