As most of you know, my amazing, brave and gorgeous 17 year old cousin Laila has been through hell and back over the last few years.

 

It started in February 2020 when Laila had a routine X-ray to investigate pain in her thigh. Two days later, she was referred to UCLH where after some tests and scans, she was told she had osteosarcoma in her thigh and needed chemotherapy and surgery urgently. Two weeks later, under the fantastic care of the doctors and nurses at uclh Hospital Laila started her intensive chemotherapy after 3 rounds she then underwent her surgery at the royal national orthopaedic hospital the whole 25 cm tumour and thigh bone was successfully removed and replaced with (titanium) plate.

Laila was already a superhero in all our eyes but witnessing her determination, strength and bravery at learning to walk again was truly inspirational.

Then came more chemo - after too many setbacks to mention, Laila fought her way through it Laila had to have a break from chemotherapy and change to another one as the original doxorubicin chemotherapy damage her heart function but she got her head around such a scary setback. She amazed everyone with her strength and bravery and finally completed 6 rounds of chemotherapy the week before Christmas 2020, she finished the intensive chemotherapy and just had immunotherapy to continue until April 2021 apart from regular scans, normal life could resume! Lockdown lifted, social life was back, got a job, holiday and a new car all ready for driving lessons - happy days!

Heartbreakingly, after a number of routine xray and scan in September 2022 Laila was told the devastating news that the nodules on her lung, discovered during chemo, had grown and she needed more surgery to remove them and likely more chemo too.

As usual, Laila took the news like the legend that she is and underwent surgery at the Royal Brompton 2 weeks ago. Surgery was successful and all cancer was successfully removed but whilst operating it was discovered the cancer had devastatingly spread to other parts of her chest cavity pleural area .

This is where we are today, another scan this week to determine how active the cancer is, another torturous wait for results.

We are asking if people could help make this extremely difficult time a little easier, if people could be so kind as to donate whatever they can towards helping make Lailas time between treatments just a bit more enjoyable, we would be eternally grateful. Laila is the bravest, strongest girl ever and deserves to be treated like the queen she is, especially in this challenging time. Please help us make this possible for our beautiful girl, and Thank you so much for reading ❤️