Help little Emma survive Ewing's Sarcoma

Hello everyone. For those who don’t know me, my name is Louise Wiggam and I’m 43 years old from Lisburn in Northern Ireland, married 16 years with 2 wonderful sons.

I’m desperately trying to fundraise to help some dear friends of mine, whose beautiful daughter, Emma, is bravely battling a deadly disease.

Emma McNeilly is 8 years old and is the daughter of my friends Paul and Petra, who live with their 4 small children just outside Ballymena in Northern Ireland.

Emma has a rare and brutal cancer and is in desperate need of a miracle, which maybe we can all help with.

It’s a desperate attempt to save this precious girl’s life.

Please read on to learn more of the family’s story and if you find it in your heart and can, please follow the link and donate to give Emma a chance. Please also share with your friends, colleagues and family for together, we can give the McNeilly family a hope.

Lots of love

Louise Wiggam, Emma and the McNeilly family.

Emma is a loving, beautiful, 8-year-old girl. Full of life, Emma loves nothing more than to play with her other 3 siblings, Adam (9), Daniel (6) and Anna (5). They are extremely close, and Emma is a kind of a big sister superhero to Anna who just wants to be like her. In 2021, life dealt Emma a horrific blow. Something, as a parent, is inconceivable. Emma was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare and poorly understood cancer which occurs in children normally in one of their limbs. Tragically this cancer had metastasized to Emma’s lungs and spine too.

The world of the family has been turned upside down, filled with pain, agony, and desperation most of us are lucky not to know. Within 2 weeks, Emma started chemotherapy. 14 two-week cycles, about 100 infusions of poisonous drugs with horrific side effects, for the next 7 months. By the third cycle Emma’s lovely long blonde hair was gone and the list of procedures and treatments just seemed to grow and grow – daily hormone injections, blood transfusions, drugs to fight the side effects of drugs, flushes, pokes, scans, 40 sessions of radiation with horrible burns.. and all that in isolation, due to covid, family torn apart with Petra practically living in the hospital with Emma while Paul took care of the other 3 at home. No visits allowed, the separation hit Emma and the rest of the children real hard. No one should go through this, and especially no innocent child.

Emma’s gruelling treatment to date has done a good job of eradicating the cancer in her femur and spine with no spread anywhere else or signs of progression to date. Emma however is left with a number of small residual lung lesions that did not clear completely and these are extremely likely to still be active and progress in the near future.

It is a heart-breaking situation as Emma may have a chance to be within the lucky 30% that survive. The problem faced is that treatment for residual lung lesions is not a standard of care in Ewing’s sarcoma in the UK yet, given the absolute lack of trials addressing the issue. There are however experiences from hospitals worldwide attempting such treatment and reporting benefits in terms of survival and prolongment of life; survival of children who had lung lesion treated have been reported while also reporting nil/near to nil survival for those who had not. Thus, to give little Emma a chance to live, to spent more precious time together, the parents want to get her lungs treated.

As one of Emma’s residual lesions is in a difficult position close to her heart, treatment may only be achieved by stereotactic radiation and advanced equipment such as Gamma and Cyberknife which, in Emma’s case, are not available through the NHS with no private providers in the UK or Ireland willing to treat paediatric cancer patients.

The family has thus reached out to hospitals and specialist radiation centres abroad for such treatments as well as to interventional radiologists in order to gradually treat the easily accessible residual lesions through ablative techniques as an alternative to radiation; ablation has been routinely and successfully used in other types of cancers and lung metastasis with minimal risks, side effects and hospitalisation.

Such treatments however cost tens of thousands, there are also consultation and travel costs. While the family are using every resource they have, it is simply not enough, and it is why I’m reaching to you for help.

Every penny of your kind donations would go against these costs and every penny counts. It would give Emma the best chance at life, a chance to be the happy little girl she should be and to fulfil her dreams in the future. A chance for the family to stay complete and for the 3 other children not to be harmed for the rest of their lives by losing their beloved sister, a chance for the parents not to bury their daughter.

It is a hope for something the family could never have imagined they would have to hope for, life of their little child.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Louise Wiggam, Emma and all the McNeilly family.