Aoife's Bubbles

As Aoife’s Mummy, it is hugely important that Aoife is not defined by cancer. But if it wasn’t for Aoife having cancer, you wouldn’t be here at Aoife’s Bubbles page.

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Every parent’s worst nightmare. You never ever think it is going to be you. Well guess what, it can be. It happened to Aoife, it happened to me, it happened to our family. Cancer doesn’t discriminate. By all accounts, we are a pretty normal family – this wasn’t part of the plan. This time 8 weeks ago, to the day, I was calling 111 thinking my little girl was chronically constipated as I was led to believe countless times. Never, ever did I ever think that we would be popping to the out of hours doctor to never return home with Aoife. What kind of world is that?

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In the weeks leading up to Aoife being formally diagnosed at Great Ormond Street (the most special corner of this world, I would like to add) I had taken Aoife to her GP, an emergency GP, minor injuries and A&E in excess of 10 times. I haven’t actually counted the amount of times this year as I am still in complete shock. I still can’t believe that I took my little girl to the people we are meant to trust this volume of times and they failed her, catastrophically. Right now, as a Mum and a human – there is no excuse, there is nothing justifiable which someone can tell me as to why they flippantly disregarded what I was telling them about Aoife. I was told countless times, I wasn’t feeding Aoife correctly, I can say with my head held high – I was. I was told countless times, you need to keep Aoife more active. We had horses, Aoife was out on the farm every, day twice a day.

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What I would like to make so very, very clear, this is not a case of anger wanting recompense but as a huge positive force of change. Well-needed change. Change to save young lives. Change to educate the rarity is REAL. I do not want anyone to feel blame or guilt for my daughters cancer, nor do I want any part of her life to bring anyone sadness. That is NOT what Aoife is about. But what we are about is accountability and justice, bringing change. What a legacy for Aoife.

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Aoife was diagnosed with Germ Cell Cancer, a rare cancer in children but a very real cancer in children. If Germ Cell Cancer is caught early, it is extremely reactive to chemotherapy and the outlook is pretty good. Even if Germ Cell cancer is caught later on, the prognosis is still positive. But by being constantly ignored, the health care professionals that saw Aoife prior to her transfer to GOSH never gave Aoife or her oncology team at GOSH a fair chance. They took away our fair chance in the fight of Aoife’s life on 7th July 2019.

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Maybe in time, I will share more details of the events leading up to Aoife’s diagnosis of Germ Cell Cancer but for now I think we will keep the specifics private as this is still so raw. The message is clear, the message is important. We are fighting for positive change, we are fighting for justice.  Your love and support means an indescribable amount.

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All my love,

Eilish

Aoife’s Mummy xxxxxxx