A mum whose daughter is now virtually blind after being diagnosed with a brain tumour aged just 11-months-old is calling for more research into the disease.
Marilyn Hellings's daughter Ellie Harris was diagnosed with a hypothalamic chiasmatic glioma brain tumour in 2004.
Marilyn, mum also to Lucas, nine, and Brandon, 21, first realised something was wrong when Ellie was just six-months-old.
The mum, who lives in Liverton, Saltburn, said: “Ellie was a healthy baby and was meeting all of the milestones, but I noticed a wobble in her eye.
"I took her to our GP, but he said there was nothing to worry about.
“Ellie then stopped eating.
"I was getting her weighed every week at the baby clinic; her weight kept dropping but no concerns were raised, and they didn’t do anything.
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"It wasn’t until my son’s nursery teacher pulled me aside and asked if Ellie was OK because she looked so thin.
“Our GP agreed to refer Ellie to hospital but said ‘they’ll only discharge her’.
"I’ll never forget that.
"Ellie was surviving on a six-ounce bottle of milk a day; she was starving to death.”
In March 2005, Ellie went to The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and after a couple of days, she was transferred to the now-closed Newcastle General for an MRI scan.
Marilyn said: “On the monitor I could see that she had a massive tumour. I was devastated and thought she would die. I felt so lost.”
Ellie underwent surgery just after her second birthday.
Surgeons said they were unable to remove the whole tumour because it would have affected her vision.
Before starting chemotherapy, Ellie spent five weeks in hospital, and was tube-fed to get her strength up.
Marilyn said: “Ellie has had practically every type of chemotherapy there is, but nothing has really worked, and the tumour has grown.
"She did have radiotherapy, but it was only years down the line that we saw the damage it caused as she now has learning difficulties.
“She went to mainstream school until she was 11 but she wasn’t developing like her peers.
"It was clear that we wouldn’t be able to send her to a normal secondary school, so she went to KTS Academy, a special education school, in Brotton.”
In 2016, Ellie’s vision deteriorated because of problems with a shunt that had been fitted when she was four years old to remove excess fluid from her brain.
She needed to have three operations within one week until the shunt was working properly again.
Ellie is now blind in one eye, and only has ten per cent vision in her other eye.
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Now, Marilyn and Ellie are swimming throughout this month at Loftus Leisure Centre as part of an August Swim Challenge to raise money for Brain Tumour Research.
Marilyn said: “Before she lost her vision, Ellie was a really good swimmer, but she hasn’t swum since before Covid, but she is absolutely smashing it.
“She’s been doing around 30 lengths each time which is incredible. I’ve been amazed at how well she’s doing and I’m so proud of her.
“Raising money for research into brain tumours is so important because, without research there’s no progress.”
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer.
Yet historically, just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.
As well as funding research, Brain Tumour Research campaigns for the Government and the larger cancer charities to invest more in research into brain tumours in order to speed up new treatments and, ultimately, to find a cure.
Matthew Price, a manager at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We’re really grateful to Marilyn and Ellie for taking on this challenge, as it’s only with the support of people like them that we’re able to progress our research into brain tumours and improve the outcome for patients like Ellie who are forced to fight this awful disease.
“Brain tumours are indiscriminate.
"They can affect anyone at any time. Too little is known about the causes and that is why increased investment in research is vital.”
To donate to Marilyn’s fundraising challenge, visit her facebook page
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