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Elsie was diagnosed with a brain tumour aged seven years old. Her mum, Lucy, shares her story.

Emily was diagnosed with a type of brain tumour called craniopharyngioma in 2022, aged 11. Now 12, Emily explains how her tumour and its treatment caused her to gain weight, and what she did in response to this. "Before my diagnosis, I was really active. I enjoyed horse riding, roller skating and swimming, and I loved school. But life changed for me when I began getting headaches at the end of 2021, and these became increasingly intense as time went on. I initially thought they might have been due to COVID-19 or bumping my head while horse riding, but my mum became worried when they didn’t get any better. I also put on quite a lot of weight, which was put down to stopping playing sport during the COVID-19 pandemic. After going to the GP several times, my parents took me to Slovakia to stay with my grandmother and undergo further investigations for my headache. While there, I had an MRI scan which showed I had a brain tumour, and an operation was performed to remove it. Since then, I’ve also had treatment with proton beam radiotherapy in London." You can read Emily's full story, which appeared in issue 101 of our free Contact Magazine, on our website.

"I was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma 55 years ago. Back in the 1960s, the diagnostic and treatment options were more limited, and after a biopsy of a lump on my neck and lots of blood tests, my parents were told I needed radiotherapy treatment. That, too, has changed a lot since then – my treatment involved lying very still in an enclosed capsule with lots of bags of lead piled up around me. The hospital didn’t have a paediatric facility and I don’t remember seeing any other children when I was being treated, only lots of elderly patients. Thankfully, treatment was successful and after 10 years of annual follow-up checks I was fully discharged. I was told I needed to careful about my teeth, but other than that there was no mention of any long-term side effects, or what’s come to be known as ‘late effects’. Obviously, since then a lot more has been learnt about the late effects of radiotherapy treatment and I know that diagnostics and treatments have changed enormously since I was diagnosed, so most of the late effects I’ve experienced probably won’t be relevant to others." Read Ro's full story and find out more about the impact of childhood cancer.

"I've had four different diagnoses of cancer, the first of which – rhabdomyosarcoma – was in 1999, when I’d just turned one. I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time 17 years later, in 2016, when I was 18. For this, I had laser excision surgery, a neck dissection on the left side, and 33 rounds of radiotherapy at St James’s Hospital in Leeds. In spring 2020, I received my third diagnosis of cancer. I had the same surgery as before and a neck dissection on the right side this time, but luckily, as it was first stage, there wasn't any treatment needed this time. My most recent diagnosis came in 2022, having been under surveillance scans on my neck since my third diagnosis. They picked up a change in my neck again and confirmed a thyroid mutation. So, in December last year, I had my thyroid removed as well as a third neck dissection. I’m in full remission now for all four cancers, but primarily from the first cancer and its treatments, I've got a lot of ongoing, long-term side effects - called ‘late effects’ - which have had, and continue to have, a huge everyday impact on my life." September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and this year Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group is highlighting the ongoing impact of having had cancer, and its treatment, as a child. Read Kimberley's story, and find out more about how you can support Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.