A YOUNG girl has been banned from kissing her own family after becoming radioactive during cancer treatment.
6-year-old Poppy Bailey was forced to stay for weeks in an insulated lead-lined room with an airlock-style door after being injected with an investigational drug.
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The cell-killing drug known as neuroblastoma has caused side effects, including making it radioactive.
Milton Keynes’ young daughter first fell ill in April 2020, when she lost her appetite, began to feel tired and depressed and began to experience pain in her leg, reports The Liverpool Echo .
When her parents took her to the hospital, they discovered that Poppy had a large tumor wrapped around her heart.
Doctors announced that it was a sign of neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer that mainly affects babies and young children.
Poppy immediately began treatment and underwent 13 cycles of chemotherapy.
But when that did not yield positive results, doctors decided to enroll him in a clinical trial at University College London Hospital.
He was injected with a radioactive iodine drug – 131-I.
After her first dose, she was forced to stay away from her family because she had received high levels of radiation.
Her mother Claire said: “The injection only takes 20 minutes and doesn’t hurt but it made Poppy radioactive which was so hard.
“It was really hard to be away from her like that.
“After the first treatment she was allowed to go home for a few days, but they measured her levels and she was still radioactive. “
She added, “Normally our bedside routine is to lie down next to her reading a book until she fell asleep, but we couldn’t do any of that.
What is neuroblastoma?
Neuroblastoma is a type of cancer that grows in nerve cells that have been left behind from growing in the uterus.
It usually develops in the adrenal glands next to the kidneys, but can also form in the spinal cord, neck, chest, pelvis, or abdomen and can spread to other organs.
It is not known what causes cancer, but it affects around 100 children in the UK each year, many of whom are under the age of five.
The outlook for children diagnosed with the disease varies and depends primarily on the spread of the cancer.
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“As a parent you just want to give them a hug, but it’s not allowed. “
After six weeks, she was reunited with her family again, including her 18-month-old brother Oscar.
Claire said: “Oscar loves Poppy, he absolutely loves her so he didn’t understand what was going on when she moved.
“When they saw each other again, they just started playing almost like they had never been apart.
“They gave each other a little hug and there were tears from me but not from the children. “
Now Poppy is undergoing immunotherapy in Southampton – ahead of surgery where her tumor will hopefully be removed.
The family is currently fundraising to raise money for treatments that are not yet available on the NHS – in New York and Barcelona.
The family has already raised £ 100,000 to cover the £ 250,000 cost of Poppy on pioneer treatment in America.
Claire explained, “When a child has cancer, you feel so helpless – you have no control.
“So fundraising is something we can do to give her the best chance for a good future.
“Poppy is amazing and I’m really proud of her.
“When I say you’re so brave, she says’ why? Because she doesn’t understand how bad it is. “
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