Brave Amy battled her tumour to the very end

Feb 18 2010 by Kelly Barker, North Wales Weekly News

Brave Amy battled her tumour to the very end

Jess and Claire are calling for business owners to support them. If you can help, e-mail news.desk@northwalesnews.co.uk

A SQUINT in a little girl’s eye led doctors to discover she had a brain tumour that tragically claimed her life after a five-year battle for survival.

The death of eight-year-old Amy Allen came as a shock to her doting family, who thought medical breakthroughs would leave her “free to live her life at last”.

But after an eight-hour operation, followed by years of gruelling chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a procedure known as a bone marrow rescue, she sadly lost her fight with medulloblastoma in September 2008.

Mum Claire, from Conwy, said her daughter helped achieve many scientific goals before she passed away, and always remained “extremely positive and very brave”.

Since then, Claire, who now lives in Altrincham, and Amy’s cousin Jess Rhodes, from Rhos on Sea, have joined forces in a bid to raise money and awareness for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, which supported them at the time.

Along with Amy’s siblings Jack and Molly, they are constantly planning fundraising events.

Claire said: “We took Amy to the doctor in 2003 because she developed a squint in her eye and got a shock when she was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma.

“She initially underwent an eight-hour operation to remove the tumour. That was followed by six weeks of full head and spinal radiotherapy after which she was fitted with a tube to help feed her during the eight months of gruelling chemo that came afterwards.

“Amy remained well until November 2005 when, after falling ill, she was diagnosed with her first relapse and doctors found she had large tumours in her liver and bone marrow.”

Claire added: “She had a 10% chance of survival but thanks to her wonderful forward-thinking consultant, he came up with a chemo regime to try, and Amy underwent more therapy and a bone marrow rescue.

“At last she had surpassed expectations and we thought she was free to live her life at last.”

But it wasn’t meant to be and in November 2007 their worst fears were confirmed after a routine brain scan showed the tumour had returned.

Claire said: “Once again, Amy’s consultant planned a research trial that slowed down the advance of the tumour, and we were able to achieve many goals before Amy passed away in September the following year.

“Through it all, Amy remained extremely positive and very brave – she was an inspiration to us all.”

Remembering her young cousin, 19-year-old Jess added: “Amy was an amazing little thing. She was always smiley and singing in spite of everything.

“We want to organise a girls’ night in because Amy loved clothes and anything girly.”