Grace’s Story
“Cancer never stopped her, In fact, it pushed her on to be more brave and more adventurous.”
Rebecca, Grace’s mum
“Grace was just 12 when she was diagnosed with a stage 3 Wildtype anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumour with GBM markers in July 2018. She was amazingly brave from the off and told us that she had been given cancer to teach others how to live with it and that is exactly what she did.
Cancer never stopped her, In fact it pushed her on to be more brave and more adventurous. She learnt to horse ride and fly a plane, to name a few . She joined air cadets and numerous awards for her bravery, she featured on Operation Ouch on CBBC .
Grace's tumour took a long time to diagnose after several incorrect diagnosis, many many seizures, and visual and auditory hallucinations. By the time a tumour was diagnosed it was covering her entire right brain hemisphere that and was inoperable.
Grace endured chemo and radiotherapy which kept her stable for about a year. On boxing day of 2019 Grace's seizures returned and we knew this beast was awake and fighting back. Heartbreakingly it took months to determine new tumour growth and a new biopsy in March 2020 caused a brain bleed that took away Grace's mobility. True to form Grace fought back, 4 weeks after pulling herself round our kitchen table she was walking again. Sadly, the damage caused started to affect her speech. Grace learnt to sign to help her communicate and so she knew her voice would always be heard.
In the 2.5 years after diagnosis Grace lived a full life until cancer completely took away her speech and mobility . However we didn't let that stop us and still thought of ways for her to be a teen. Late night shopping in Primark was always a fav.
Grace started a trial at Birmingham children's hospital in August 2020 and received amazing care but a seizure 6weeks later ended the trial. Grace spent 2 weeks in ITU and came home much stronger but was very tired. She let us know through signing that she was ready and she passed away peacefully 2 weeks later on November 2nd 2020 surrounded by her family and all her animals.
She is forever loved and missed our truly Amazing Grace.”