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Leah’s story

Leah, aged 24, shares her story.

My life was forever changed at the age of 13. Cancer robbed me of all of the things I’d ever known and loved and left me disabled and in constant pain. About halfway through my radiotherapy, I started getting horrendous shooting pains down my legs that started impacting my mobility. Everyone, including all the doctors, thought this was temporary, that the radiotherapy was just irritating my nerves and that once I finished treatment it should resolve itself. All I wanted was my old, normal life and my old self back as I no longer recognised either of those. Unfortunately, that never happened and I started relying on my wheelchair more and more until I needed it permanently.

The spinal tumours had been slowly compressing and damaging my nerves for some time.

The necessary surgery and radiotherapy inflamed my already damaged nerves. This left me with irreparable damage and extreme, debilitating chronic pain. Since then, I have been in pain every second of every day for nearly eleven years and unfortunately, I will be for the rest of my life. Cancer has taught me a lot, how strong and resilient I am and who and what is important in my life. My family were there for every single procedure, scan and radiotherapy session, they were my absolute rocks and still are. I know how incredibly lucky I am to be here, to be able to share my tailbone cancer story and to have been in remission for almost 11 years now because not everyone is that lucky.

Welcome to 2025

A new year is a time for looking forward to a brighter future and reflecting on the achievements and memories of the year gone by. At Children with Cancer UK, 2024 really was a year to celebrate. Not only did we release our first ever film, Kids Like Us (which you can watch on Sky or NOW TV), our very own Seb Key ran 1320km around Iceland and thousands of you turned out to run, walk and dance with us at sporting events across the UK. All to help change the lives of children and young people with cancer.

Creating a brighter future for children after cancer treatment

Thanks to your help we can fund vital research projects to support the long-term health of children and young people treated for cancer. Children and young people who survive cancer can then face long-term health impacts as a result of their disease and the intense treatments they received. However, not enough is known about these effects. Prof. Mike Hawkins and his team will conduct the largest and most comprehensive national study to date on the long-term impacts faced by survivors. This will help experts to better understand who is most likely to be at increased risk of long-term side effects from cancer treatments and how best to support them.

Let’s keep making a difference together

With your help we can make 2025 our best fundraising year ever.

To get involved, click the link below.