February 29th 2012

Fantastic news from The Garwood family!

On the 16th February 2012, nearly two and half years after they were first diagnosed Gracie and Megan received confirmation that they had no cancer in their bone marrow and it was functioning normally!

We as a family are completely overjoyed with this news, it's been a long and tiring journey, at times we thought we would never make it to this stage!

We have watched our beautiful daughters suffer more than many adults will ever have to, too many hospital trips to even remember, they have endured numerous anaesthetics, lumbar punctures, canulas, nose tubes put in and then vomited out, they have had poison fed through their veins that has changed their personalities, it's made them sick, they have lost their hair, sometimes their ability to walk, it's caused them intense pain in their tummies, heads and joints, we watched Megan have fits after a peg injection and because of this she then had to have six injections instead of the one several times over the first year but throughout this horrendous time of their lives they have kept smiling, they have kept laughing, if they have felt well enough they have attended school, they have tried to be the little girls that they are, their strength has made us so proud and we love our daughters dearly.

We are truly thankful that we have come this far, we have met some amazing families and children on this journey, some have become very good friends and I am sure they will be in our lives forever, we have met some amazing children who lost their battles, it's heartbreaking to see these children suffer and it is never far from our thoughts that we are at this moment in time one of the lucky ones to still have our girls!

Cancer will always be a big part of our lives, the girls will need regular blood checks to make sure they haven't relapsed along with regular heart checks, we don't know what long term damage the chemotherapy may have done to their little bodies but we have got them here with us and for that we are so very thankful.

We of course would never have got through this without some amazing support, our families, Vicky, Olly and Sarah and more than anyone my mum and dad (Cathy and Nick Brock) the most fantastic parents I could ever ask for they have been with us through it all, they have had the tears and the laughter, they have kept our strength up when we have been down and without them our lives would have been even harder! We have some great friends, some new and some old, (too many to name you all but you know who you are) you are all dear to our hearts and of course everyone we have never met but have read about our story and helped with the girls trip to Disneyland and followed our journey, your support has been the strength we have all needed to fight this and keep smiling!

Life is good, we are ready to embrace "normality" whatever that may be, we want to have a summer of fun and concentrate on some much needed family and friend time, we are looking forward to watching our little girls blossom without the chemotherapy and regular trips to hospital holding them back! Who knows what the future holds but we are ready for it, it's time to look forward for The Garwood family.

Thank you for reading this, with love Emma, Mark, Gracie, Megan & Martha xxx

January 5th 2012

6 Weeks to go!! To get here has been a long time coming and brings mixed emotions for us all but first let's go back a few months as this has been an amazing time during this journey, through the tough times we have made some truly magical memories.

Since the line removals life is so much more settled for 3 weeks of the month, the girls had a summer of fun, compared to last year which was a summer of Addenbrooks even the weather didn't dampen our spirits, they are now swimming every week if neutraphils allow and they love it!

We had trip to London at the end of Sept and were treated to an amazing night in the Royal Suite at The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, it was truly fantastic, the girls got thoroughly spoilt and felt like princesses unfortunately they may have a shock when they come to stay in a "normal" hotel but it was an amazing experience for them and us with the icing on the cake whilst having breakfast on the terrace looking out over Hyde Park the Queens Cavalry rode past on their Sunday morning warm up, fabulous, and special thanks to my lovely friend Claire and Lancaster Ipswich.

During the good times we are still having Dex weekends once a month and they seem to be getting more traumatic and stressful, hard for a lot of people to understand as most of our friends and family are lucky enough only to see the girls when they are well, it appears to be affecting them more aggressively and it takes longer for them to get over it, it's heartbreaking to see our little girls to go from happy, full of laughter girls to sunken eyes, so tired and grumpy, tummy pains, itching and headaches and just as you think you have covered all the side effects with different medicines something else rears its ugly head.

Earlier in the year we applied for a wish through Starlight Children's Foundation, Megans wish was to meet Father Christmas, I got a call to say that Starlight do a group trip to Lapland in December, exciting but a little scary, we have always been told that we couldn't leave the country whilst on treatment due to medical care so I kept it a secret for a while until the consultants had confirmed it was ok and insurance had been obtained, during the call Starlight also asked if the girls would be happy to represent them as the faces for there Christmas of Happiness campaign, we of course agreed, an amazing charity and if we could help to raise the awareness of it and help other children get their wishes granted, it was our pleasure!

Little did we know how wonderful the experience was going to be, me thinking a couple of pics and collection buckets, oh no, first we had a fantastic photo shoot on a beach in Suffolk for a textile company Runaway Coast, who have designed some items especially for Starlight, the girls had great fun posing on the beach. The next invite was to the Arthur Christmas Premiere, we were treated like VIP's all day, starting with M&S on Oxford Street opening early for us so the girls could choose some dresses then on to Leicester Square, it's hard to describe as it was so truly fabulous, the red carpet was overwhelming and we got to meet some lovely stars and the film was brilliant, we then were whisked off to the aftershow party which was a winter wonderland of fun for the girls, special memories that will never be forgotten.

Lapland got confirmed with always the option to cancel if the girls were poorly, thankfully we didn't have to and what a fantastic trip, it is the most magical experience ever, even with no snow, trust us to go when its the warmest it's been in 30 years, thankfully the snow came a day Into our trip, we got to enjoy on our search for Santa, meeting the good and naughty elves, reindeer sleigh rides, horse sleigh rides, meeting the husky dogs, lots of fantastic sledging and of course meeting the big man himself, the girls were overwhelmed, so much so they couldn't speak!!

We managed all this avoiding the dreaded dex weekends, it's been the best experience ever, what makes me sad is we only got to experience this because my beautiful girls got leukaemia, that makes me very sad!!

Of course I had forgotten we have just had Christmas, we had dex the weekend before, we then had coughs and by Thurs the 22nd Megan had a temperature, her bloods were good so they sent her home but the temperature wouldn't settle even with calpol and went upto 40.3 so we took her back in, she felt very poorly, thankfully she came home on Christmas Day morning feeling loads better and we got to spend Christmas with our family. Gracie then went in the day after Boxing Day with a temperature but not as high, they checked her over and she was fine, so she came home the next day with antibiotics! Ironically we have been in hospital for the last two Christmas Eve's but managed to get home by the afternoon, this year somebody was aptly reminding us, don't take it for granted!!

Those mixed emotions again, 6 weeks away from hopefully getting the initial all clear, yes life will calm down, "normal" even, but also scared no more chemo these drugs that are keeping the cancer at bay will stop on the 16th Feb, calpol for a temp instead of rushing to hospital, that monthly blood test will tell us so much, living in this "oncology world" you hear all the fantastic stories of success but you also hear the sad stories, too many children gone to soon or relapsing, my thoughts are always with these families.

Gracie and Megan make us so proud, although sometimes the last two years have seemed like a blur, the only consistency is how brave and strong our little girls have been, they have taken the rough with the smooth, their enthusiasm is infectious, to learn, to laugh and to enjoy life and not forgetting little Martha, she was one when this all started and is now four, she has a fantastic character and personality, she has a super special bond with her granny and grandad and she is growing up far to fast, we love them all dearly!

What does 2012 hold for us, the news we are all praying for in February, an amazing holiday to look forward to thanks to such a lot of peoples amazing generosity and kindness, good health and happiness for all our family and friends and I hope that our daughters courage and beautiful smiles have gone a little way to making people aware, all cancer is horrendous but childhood cancer is just heartbreaking!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year.

With love
Em, Mark, Gracie, Megan And Martha xxxxxx

PS.. Next update will be around the middle of Feb xxx

August 29th 2011

Hello, I wanted to do a quick update, one because it is long overdue and we have got lots to tell and two we are coming up to two years since diagnosis and with only six months of treatment left, 6 dex weekends, 2 lumbars and 1 bone marrow (a very important one mind you) things finally look like they are getting back to some kind of normality.

Firstly the girls, they are doing amazingly, their hair is looking awesome, their energy is astounding and they are finally starting to enjoy all the things that their friends have been lucky enough to take for granted.

Yes even swimming, this is my biggest news and to most it is great news but to us it is the best news ever, for those that don't know the girls made the decision over two months ago now to have their Hickman lines removed, they have all chemo and bloods given and taken through these lines, we fondly call them wigglys and they are an amazing thing that most definitely take the pain and trauma away from children whilst going through chemotherapy, whilst a god send they can also be fatal, they are a plastic tube that goes straight into the blood stream so as you can imagine they can be a breeding ground for nasty bugs which at times can cause life threatening conditions and sadly these bugs can also lead to death, so whilst we have broached the subject before about line removal maybe more for our peace of mind rather than theirs they have been adamant that they do not want them removed as this would entail having weekly finger pricks for blood and monthly canulas for chemo and possibly canulas in between as they still would need to be given antibiotics for a temperature. We accepted this and life continued fairly well, they are loving horse riding and life on maintenance has the occasional downs but mostly lots of ups and fun.

They then witnessed the start of swimming lessons at their school, they came home and announced "mummy we want our lines out please so that we can swim"!

We were fairly cautious as once they were out that would be it and we didn't then want them getting traumatised with canulas etc, so we did a dummy run on the next dex weekend, the DVD was set up to occupy them and the cold spray was practised with. Our girls are amazing, they didn't flinch, the canula was inserted, no tears, just the odd glance to see what was happening, they were brilliant and within two weeks of the trial run we went to Addenbrooks for the line removal, Megan said goodbye to her wigglys which had been hanging out of her chest since two days after she had been diagnosed, Gracies were her 2nd lot but had still been in for nearly two years. We have got swimming lessons planned for next week as they have to have good bloods for them to be able to do it but the paddling pool is now a permenant fixture in the garden and they have had so much fun in the sea without me having to "waterproof them" with plastic bags and a wrapping of clingfilm, it is an amazing sight and makes us so proud that our little girls have come so far in the last two years, to see them body boarding with the waves and splashing with their friends is another wonderful step forward for us.

By contrast to last years summer holidays which were spent mainly travelling to and from Addenbrooks having chemo, this years have been brilliant so far not even England's rainy weather can dampen our spirits we have managed to fit in lots of family stuff and lots of friend stuff the girls especially enjoyed their own a pony day at the stables, our week glamping and having lots of picnics and barbecues which they missed out on last year, dare I say there is light at the end of the tunnel! Martha is also having her fair share of fun, she growing up so quickly and loving the stays at Grannys house when the girls are on their dex weekends, i hear through the grapevine she gets thoroughly spoilt which is well deserved.

We do still have tough times, the vinc and dex does affect the girls quite badly with terrible stomach and leg pains and you do feel incredibly helpless having to watch them go through this, occasionally we do think when will it go wrong again, not regularly but I do think it must be a natural thought, we are a positive family though and hope and believe our girls will fight this all the way and if it dares to rear it's ugly head again they will continue to fight because they are tough little girls with a lot of wonderful things ahead of them.

I am pleased to say that the fund raising goes on, a local pub is this weekend doing a sponsored firewalk for Gracie and Megan so good luck to everyone who is taking part, we are hoping to come along and support them although it is a chemo/dex weekend and we are even thinking ahead next year for our trip and are hoping to possibly start planning it for next October, unfortunately as treatment dose not finish until February it cannot be sooner, we are all super excited though.

I am also hoping as the end is getting nearer to do my bit to help the amazing research and hard work that is going into helping children and adults to beat cancer, I am not sure what yet but I am a secret daredevil, any suggestions on a postcard please.

Once again we would like to thank you for your continued support, we have made some great new friends over the last couple of years and met some special people, this whole experience will change our lives forever and will never go away for good but having gone through some very dark days and be able to come out the other end makes us very grateful, we will never forget of course the amazing children we have met and have had the pleasure to know who have sadly lost their battle, our thoughts are with them and their families always.

Love & best wishes,
Emma, Mark, Gracie, Megan and Martha xxxxx

June 5th 2010

Hi everyone, this is a long needed update on Gracie & Megan's progress during their treatment.

Firstly & most importantly I would like to thank you all for your support, raffle ticket purchases & donations to get the girls to Disneyland, everytime they hear or see an advert for it they go wild with excitement.

The girls are now on Weeks 27 & 28 of treatment & doing amazingly, as with all the children we have met on this journey they seem to cope with the endless chemo, hospital visits & stays with such bravery & always with a smile on their faces (well sometimes they are grumpy especially when on dex better known as steroids and a real personality turner)!!

We have had a few temperature stays in hospital over the last few months but thankfully they have turned into nothing serious. Megan also had quite a severe reaction to a Peg injection, it was quite scary for us all, unfortunately because of this what was one injection is now 6 carried out every other day over two weeks, as you can imagine she hates them but thankfully they are soon forgotton, unfortunately there are a few more needed over the next few months.

We were due to have a well needed break over Easter but unfortunately Megan spiked a temperature on the Thurs, she came home on the Tues only for us to have to take Gracie in on the Wed.

We then had a month of dex's which because of the girls being a week apart, Gracie started one week she stopped then Megan started it was horrendous. I will be begging & pleading with our consultant to line them up next time.

So all in all our life is full of weekly hospital visits sometimes more but when they can the girls go to school, they love it & apart from dex weeks (it wouldnt be fair on the staff, girls or their friends) they go every day, join in with everything & especially love PE and in between all of this we are having fun times, seeing friends old & new, having days out & trying to have a bit of normality.

We are coming to the end of an 8 week block of delayed intensification, we will then have 14 weeks left of intense chemo & then we move onto a year and a bit of maintenance which still involves daily medication but 3 monthly visits to Addenbrooks instead of weekly, we have also got a finish date which is the 16 February 2012, truly exciting for us all.

Sorry for this long message, my fault for not doing it sooner, there is much more i could tell you but hopefully this gives you a little bit of insight into our family & of course my beautiful girls who we are all trying to do this for, they make us very proud.

Em, Mark, Gracie, Megan & Martha xxx