UPDATE: |Our ‘bright little girl’ was vomiting for two days before getting bruises – deep down we knew News

Couple held daughter as they wept after getting the devastating news

The parents of a four year-old little girl have decided to tackle the London Marathon, after the pain of watching her endure chemotherapy inspired them to raise money for other children in need.

Freyja Harpham and Zac Turner, both 30, from Sheffield, will be taking on the feat on behalf of their daughter ‘Billie the Brave’, who was just 21 months old, when she received her cancer diagnosis.

“I felt like the world was about to end,” said mum Freyja, as she watched Billie quickly descend from a ‘bright little girl’, to needing life-saving treatment. Freyja explained that “deep down” she knew something was wrong, Yorkshire Live reports.

Freyja said: “She’d been vomiting for two days, so we rang the GP who told us to take her straight to A&E. They said it was just gastroenteritis and she would get over it soon.”

However, over the next few weeks Billie started to experience other symptoms, including a high temperature, bruising, and a cough. When Billie started to struggle with breathing, Frejya and Zac rushed her back to hospital. Doctors immediately put her on oxygen and started a series of tests. On November 29, 2022, Billie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL).

ALL is a rare type of blood cancer, most often diagnosed in children aged 0-4 years. It is an aggressive type of leukaemia and symptoms such as fatigue, frequent infections and bruising can progress very quickly. Freyja said: “After we were given the news, Zac and I just sat and cried and cuddled Billie. It was so hard.”

Treatment began immediately, with chemotherapy and six weeks of a trial immunotherapy drug. One of the rounds of chemo paralysed Billie’s vocal chords, which meant she needed to have a tracheostomy – a procedure where a hole is made at the front of the neck to facilitate breathing.

“The treatment felt relentless, and like it was never going to end,” said Freyja. “For almost a year, we were in and out of the hospital. We had to isolate Billie due to being immunosuppressed, so no visitors could help. People used to come and take Ada, our six-year-old daughter, out for us so she could have more of a normal life. But as a family we missed out on a lot.”

Billie is now home and on maintenance chemotherapy. The family have rearranged their lives to enable them to care for their daughter. Freyja worked as a research facilitator for the NHS but has now had to take a career break. Freyja and Zac also had to cancel their wedding, which was scheduled for September 2023.

“One of us has to be with her 24 hours a day because of the danger of the tracheostomy getting blocked, which makes everything harder,” said Freyja. “She’s missed out on loads. We had to pull her out of nursery, and she’s missed out on the social side of things so much. The tracheostomy means she can eat and drink normally, but she can’t speak. That’s the hardest thing – it’s taken away her voice.”

Billie has now finished her treatment at home, but her vocal chords are still paralysed and she continues to be monitored regularly by oncology doctors.

“The chemotherapy they use is so harsh on little kids’ bodies. It would be nice to have a future where there are kinder treatments,” Freyja continued. “We don’t want other families to have to go through what we have, so we have decided to run the London Marathon for Leukaemia UK. We want to turn our pain into purpose and hopefully change the future for people with leukaemia.”

Adding: “We know this won’t be an easy challenge, but if Billie can go through cancer treatment, then we can run 26.2 miles!”

The parents are joined by over 20 other competitors from all over the country, who have chosen to raise money for Leukaemia UK, helping its mission to fund kinder and more effective treatments to stop leukaemia from devastating lives. Leukaemia UK hopes its supporters’ dedicated efforts will raise around £120,000 to fund more research to stop leukaemia devastating lives.

Russell Benson, Community and Challenge Events Manager at Leukaemia UK, said: “We are so grateful to our amazing supporters running the London Marathon for us this Sunday and cannot wait to cheer them on! Their incredible support will help Leukaemia UK fund groundbreaking research into kinder and more effective treatments to stop leukaemia from devastating lives.”