Help Isabelle fight cancer with hope for her future

Hope for Isabelle

Isabelle is bravely battling bone cancer, enduring chemo and facing the loss of her leg. Please help us give her hope for a future worth living.

Our Story - by Isabelle's parents, Faye and Al

Earlier this year, our happy, energetic Isabelle was having leg pains. Nothing to worry about, we thought - just growing pains or a torn ligament from her triathlon training. The GP referred her for an x-ray, and they found a lump. And then our lives just collapsed.

A biopsy confirmed it was malignant.

Our lovely eleven-year-old girl was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer, in the femur of her right leg.

Isabelle has been in and out of hospital ever since that day. Just three months has utterly changed her life. A girl who never stopped moving and loved swimming, tennis, cricket, running and biking - who as a baby used to go to sleep cuddling a ball - is completely still in a hospital bed, enduring intensive chemotherapy, scans, treatments and all of their horrendous side effects.

Instead of enjoying her last summer in primary school and looking forward to the next chapter of life as a Year 7 in secondary school, Isabelle is facing multiple life-altering surgeries: either amputation of her right leg or complex limb salvage operations, where as much of her leg as possible will be saved using bone grafts or metal implants.

Amazingly, she is still smiling. But she is terrified of what her future might look like.

The end of life as we knew it

It's hard to describe how our family has been shattered. This isn't a situation you plan for and it's hard to appreciate how tough some of the everyday practicalities are. We both want to be with Isabelle in hospital as much as possible, while somehow keeping our lives on track and staying strong for Isabelle and her brother Isaac, who still has to go to school despite being terrified for his little sister.

Most of all, we desperately just want Isabelle to get through this, and for her future life to be as good as it can be.

Everyone thinks their children are amazing. But Isabelle has always had something really special. With all of her sports, she doesn't care if she wins, she just loves to compete. I cry every time I see her smiling as she crosses a finish line, because she has such a unique mixture of positivity and love for life, mixed with steely determination and grit. The week after she found out about her tumour she went ahead with her Grade Three Drums exam - and passed with Merit! She doesn't even realise how amazing she is.

If anyone can beat cancer it's Isabelle. But right now, what's breaking her heart (and ours) is the thought of her not being able to run, and jump and swim anymore.

Hope for the Future

We are absolutely determined to get Isabelle through this and give her hope that she will be able to be active, and play sport again.

I can't believe we're doing this, as we are a very private family, but we need to start raising money so we can give her the happiest, most active life possible in the unknown future that hopefully awaits her.

We don't yet know exactly what she might need but have started doing the research. At the moment the plan is to remove the tumour and implant a prosthetic femur bone and knee. But this could change to amputation at any time, depending on what the surgeons find when they operate.

Either way, Isabelle's physio and rehabilitation will be brutally intense. The NHS have been amazing, but their physiotherapy service is not geared towards the needs of an eleven-year-old who wants to play sport again. She will need specialist therapists, prosthetics, parasports coaching, wheelchairs, orthotics, other equipment that's completely beyond our knowledge right now. We will need to adapt our house. We can't do this alone.

How you can help



- If you are able to donate, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for anything you can spare.

- If you would like to organise a fundraising event for Isabelle that would be amazing. Please get in touch and let us know!

- If you are able to share her story and help us raise awareness, we hugely appreciate your support.

We will be posting updates on her treatment and our progress towards our target.

THANK YOU

Al, Faye, Isaac and Isabelle