Aurora’s story: “She started crying, asking whether she was going to die”

Aurora was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma at eight years old after her Mum took her back and forth to A&E, where she was initially prescribed antibiotics. Aurora went on to have several cycles of chemotherapy and was declared as being in remission but sadly relapsed shortly after. She then had second line chemotherapy but relapsed again and on 21st June 2021, was taken home where she later passed away with her family around her.  

“I took her back to the hospital, and we were waiting for seven hours. They tried to send us home and we argued for her to stay although the doctor was not too happy.  When I told them that something was wrong, the doctor said, ‘what do you suggest?’ and I told them ‘I’m not a doctor but she’s been on ten days of antibiotics now and she should be getting better but she’s getting progressively worse’”  

Aurora was admitted and had more tests at the hospital including an MRI and was put onto hyperhydration, excessive fluids for her kidneys.  

“I went home to pack my bags and say goodbye to the kids – at the time my son was five months old, and my little girl had just turned 2.  I said goodbye, went back to the hospital and four hours later they pulled me into a room and they said that they had relooked at her bloods and she had lymphoma or leukaemia. I asked that if how quickly it’s progressed was significant for her prognosis because within ten days she’s gone from feeling well and just having a pain in her chin to having fluids 24 hours a day and being barely coherent. Straight away, the consultant said that there was a form of cancer in children that acted really aggressively, but it’s also one of the most treatable forms. She said that children often got sick extremely quickly, but also responded well to treatment”  

Once they were told it was a form of cancer, they were transferred to London for more tests and to start treatment.  

“She went straight into intensive care and carried on hyper hydration. The following day we met her oncologist and she asked for a timeline of everything that had happened, so I told her everything. Then they pulled us into a room to discuss it and she said she needed to be in surgery within 24 hours, because they saw how quickly her bloods changed from the Friday to the Sunday at our local hospital. 

“She had the surgery on the Monday including biopsies and a central line, then on the Tuesday they told us that her diagnosis was Burkitt’s leukaemia. Initially it’s classified as a lymphoma but because her bone marrow had such a high percentage affected (28%), they classify it as a leukaemia. By this point it had already infiltrated her lungs, kidneys, bone marrow and nasal cavity. It was also compressing her optic nerve – when we were in Margate, her eye stopped moving but the same doctor that tried to send me home the night before told me it was fine when in fact it was her tumour was pressing on her optic nerve.”  

Aurora then went on to have four rounds of chemotherapy.  

“In September, after her fourth cycle, we got told she was in remission and she just needed maintenance chemo which was incredible, we were over the moon. Following that, two weeks later we got a call to say her bone marrow had come back and she wasn’t in remission, she had relapsed already.”  

Aurora went on to have RICE chemotherapy.  

“It looked as though it was working to begin with in her first cycle – we went in October, she had her first cycle beginning of November and her second cycle the beginning of December but then just before Christmas, she started swelling. Initially they put it down to infection, she went to see an ophthalmologist that said it was something to do with the lymphatic drainage system. She’d started swelling before – before she had cycle two of RICE her eyes had started swelling, and then she started chemo and it went down. I don’t think anyone thought anything of it at the time, we thought it was conjunctivitis or infection. After her second round of treatment the goal was to go for transplant but she needed to be in remission.  

“She went for an MRI on 23rd December which was preliminary clear, so again we got told she was in remission, she then went for a PET scan on the 31st of December and the disease was everywhere north of her pelvis. It was New Year’s Eve so trying to get an answer out of anyone was impossible. I’d come home for New Year’s – we’d already been told she had a 10 per cent chance of survival when she went through second line treatment and then the likelihood of her making it after that was less than 5. It was just a hard weekend because she was supposed to come home for Christmas but because she was so poorly, she couldn’t, I spent all of Christmas with her, came home on New Year’s Eve so her dad could be with her but I think by that point I’d worked it out anyway.”  

On the 4th January, Aurora’s family and the doctors discussed her options and they were advised to consider taking her home. Aurora’s family however, disagreed and wanted to know other options and trials available, and it was decided that she would go on a new trial drug. On 29th April, they were given the news that she was in remission once again so she could have a stem cell transplant.  

“It put her into remission, so she was allowed to go through with the transplant, a year to the day she was diagnosed we went back into the Marsden to go through the conditioning treatment. She had radiotherapy and chemotherapy alongside one another, then had her transplant on May 13th. Initially she took it well, everyone was so impressed, and then after five weeks, she relapsed again.”  

On the 15 June, they were told that she had relapsed extensively, and they had the option to take her home or stay in hospital. Aurora went home on the 21st June and passed away just a week later on the 29th.  

Keisha had never said the word ‘cancer’ to Aurora to begin with, they said she had ‘poorly’ blood and she needed medicine so would have to stay in hospital. One day Keisha answered a phone call while in hospital with Aurora and she said to them ‘look at the moment I don’t really care, my daughter has been diagnosed with cancer, I’m in London’ and Aurora overheard. She started crying, asking whether she was going to die. That was the hardest conversation Keisha says she ever had to have.  

Young Lives vs Cancer have been there for Aurora’s family since she was first diagnosed.   

“She used to ring me every other week. She helped me with all the DLA forms, not just for Aurora but for Ada and Oscar as well – I was absolutely drowning in everything so she helped me sort all that out. Even now she still rings me every month to check in. She’d always come and visit Aurora and tell her jokes. It’s just nice to have someone let me vent to her, sometimes that’s all you need. They do go through everything you need to know, not so much about the medical side but life outside of that.”