Poppy’s battle against Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML)

Hi, im Connor, and this is a story over the last 6 and a half months, including my fiancé Louise, and our daughter Poppy.

Poppy is our 21 month old little girl. Poppy was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of leukaemia called Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). Poppy was first taken to hospital on the 27th August 2024 at just 14 months old. We took Poppy to hospital after her skin got very pale and she was fatigued and not eating or drinking anything. On Tuesday 27th August we booked a GP appointment for Poppy, which Louise took Poppy to while i was at work. The GP turned around and said to take her straight to hospital. I was working until 6pm on this day. After finishing work i made my way up to meet Poppy and Louise at Colchester hospital on the children’s a&e ward. I arrived at the hospital at around 7pm, and at around 8pm me and Louise got pulled into a sideroom while a nurse sat with Poppy.

Me and Louise thought this was strange at first but we were about to find out why… The doctor sat us down and said the following: “i am afraid its not good news” in which i replied “why, whats happened?” And the doctor then said “we have done some blood tests, and the results have come back and we suspect your daughter has got blood cancer (leukaemia).” As you can imagine this instantly crushed me and Louise, broke our hearts into pieces and our world was turned upside down in a second, the worst news a parent could ever receive about their first child. Me and Louise broke down crying and blaming ourselves for all of this, and little did we know this was the start of a very long journey with Poppy.

Poppy was taken to addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge via ambulance at 3am on Wednesday 28th August as they have a specialist children cancer ward there. We arrived unaware of what was to come, and the next few days were spent sleepless and full of worry between me and Louise. I spoke to my manager about the situation not long after we were told the news, who was absolutely amazing and so understanding of what we were all going through, and i was given a period of time off of work. The day we arrived at addenbrookes Poppy was taken into the paediatric day unit and had a small procedure to extract a sample of bone marrow from her lower back, this was to confirm that Poppy had cancer and the scientists at the hospital could inspect and determine what exactly it was that Poppy had. Poppy was put to sleep for this procedure, and it was done using a needle that goes through her bone to extract marrow from inside. A few days later we received confirmation that Poppy did have AML. We then had doctors and consultants come into Poppy’s room and talk us through a treatment plan. Long story short Poppy would have a 6-8 month intense treatment, with 4 rounds of harsh chemo, hopefully leading to being cancer clear. Now this all looked good on paper but the reality was a different story.

Poppy’s first round of chemo started early September, and this chemo would be given for 10 days in a row. All was looking well approaching the end of the 10 days, after which Poppy would have a short break before another round of chemo. But the day after the 10th day we noticed Poppy starting to look very unwell, her skin was mottled, she had a fever, and was not herself. The nurses done a covid test which came back positive so we were isolated in a barrier room, but then rushed to a different ward to protect the other cancer children. After being rushed to this other ward, Poppy deteriorated fast, she was shivering, shaking, had a high temperature and was being sick, which were all signs of sepsis (blood infection). Poppy was then rushed into the paediatric intensive care ward and put on a ventilator to help aid her breathing, while being administered every steroid and medication under the sun to try and get rid of the sepsis. And it kills me saying it, but that day we were so close to losing Poppy, noone will ever understand how that felt, we were lucky that they treated her as early as they did.

We later found out the Poppy’s hickman line (which goes into her chest directly to her heart for chemo and medication treatment) had got infected, and we were unsure how this happened, Poppy was on the ventilator in intensive care for 3 days, and spent a further 10 days being treated by the intensive care team, with her little body battling as hard as it could. And during all of this me or Louise were not allowed to stay with Poppy in the intensive care ward due to no parent sleeping facilities. Which was really hard for both of us to deal with.

Poppy bounced back like the absolute trooper she is and the doctors were looking to start the next round of chemo around early October. Poppy smashed through the second round of chemo like it was nothing, eating, drinking and playing as normal, which was so nice to see. On Saturday 12th October we got given the news that Poppy was well enough to spend some time back at home before coming back to addenbrookes for her 3rd round of chemo, which we were really excited for. After spending the last 6 weeks at hospital, we arrived back home in colchester that evening and it felt so good to be back home, even if it was only for a short period of time. We woke up at around 8am the following morning, and when changing Poppy’s nappy we noticed that she had a rash all over her body… we called colchester hospital and went straight there at 9am, where we spent the following 3 days with Poppy being treated for a suspected infection. Which means we spent a total of 17 hours at home before being back in hospital, after the 3 days at colchester hospital passed, we were transferred back to addenbrookes as Poppy really wasnt doing well, over the next few days Poppy’s skin got worse, and more rashes were appearing and it was very uncomfortable for her.

After a lot of steroid creams and medication, Poppy’s skin started to clear up, but during this time the chemo started to take its toll and Poppy lost most of her hair, which we ended up shaving off as her scalp was very sore from the recent skin rash and irritation. Poppy still looked as beautiful as ever, and was doing really well in herself considering everything that was going on. At the end of October/start of November Poppy was dealing with her treatment really well, and at the start off October we were moved off of the ward as a family to onsite accommodation at a flat on the hospital grounds. This meant that Poppy was well enough to be off of the ward, but not well enough to go home just yet. The main reason for this was Poppy’s neutrophil count, (which is to do with her immune system). Poppy’s neutrophil count was badly affected because of the chemo, so this meant that we had to be very careful about who Poppy was around and keep her away from any chance of infection.

In the middle of November we had to go back to the ward as Poppy has spiked a temperature, but we were not in there for long and by the last week of November we actually got to go home and spend time as a family properly for the first time since nce August! Before we went back home the doctors came and saw us with some news. They said that Poppy’s chemo was working, but not as well as they had hoped, which meant that they were going to try and do a bone marrow transplant for Poppy, and booked us to come back to the hospital on 9th December.

We returned back to addenbrookes, and in the lead up to the bone marrow transplant Poppy had 8 days worth of harsh chemotherapy which was 9 days in a row with only 1 day off in the middle, this chemo was to kill all of Poppy’s immune system, bone marrow and white blood cells prior to her transplant.

The transplant that Poppy received was from an umbilical cord that was flown over from South Carolina in America. Poppy’s transplant was on 20th December and only took 30 minutes. Due to the recovery and being under close watch from the nurses and doctors, we spent Poppy’s second Christmas and new year in hospital. Poppy recovered well from her transplant and on the 21st January we came home!

The doctors told us that we would still need to attend check up appointments with Poppy at addenbrookes hospital every Monday and Thursday. Poppy was doing well, that was until Saturday 25th January when she started to be sick all of a sudden. This happened repeatedly over the next couple of days, until on Tuesday 28th January, Poppy lost loads of weight and came up with a rash all over her body.

We rushed to addenbrookes first thing on the Wednesday, where they weighed Poppy. She had dropped down to 9kg, which is very light for a 19 month old. Poppy was put straight on IV fluids to try and get her weight up, and after alot of working out, the doctors suspected that Poppy had an infection in her gut caused by GVDH, (Graft Vs Host Disease) which is a massive side effect caused by her bone marrow transplant. The GVHD had caused Poppy’s gut to get infected which meant that she was rejecting her feed she was receiving through her feeding tube, and this caused her to be sick a lot. Poppy was then put on gut rest which meant she wasnt allowed to have anything to eat, apart from a small oral sponge which we dipped in water for her to be able to keep her mouth and throat from being completely dry. Poppy was put on lots of steroids and medication to try and clear up this infection.

Poppy remained on gut rest for just over a week before she was put back on her feed, which was going well for around 2 weeks, and then it felt like we were moving backwards as Poppy started to be sick in the evening after having most of her feed. Which means that the steroids and medication didnt do the full job of clearing up the GVHD infection. Poppy was put back on gut rest and increased IV fluids with a maximum allowed intake of 500mls of fluid per 24 hours. Which brings us up to where we are now, Poppy is also not allowed anything containing dairy, wheat or gluten as this may trigger another gut infection. Poppy is doing well given everything she has been through, but in one last attempt to try and clear up her gut infection, the doctors have suggested ECP, which basically means that Poppy will be hooked up to a machine that will take her blood, clean it of all the toxins and white cells in her blood, and put it back inside her. This should allow her to start her feed again, and also for her to start eating again.

Most recently, Louise’s SSP has finished and her work are not offering any more sick pay or leave, and this go fund me is just to support us at this difficult time, any amount of donation is more than appreciated.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read our little story, we really appreciate all the support received by my work, with them giving me the time off i had, and also me being able to cover the Cambridge area while being at the hospital, so thanks to everyone that has supported me with that. Here is to Poppy getting better and having a really good rest of 2025!