Fundraiser launched for family of one-year-old Gracie Greenwood who has a terminal brain tumour

Lauren Doherty and Zak Greenwood with one-year-old daughter Gracie Greenwood who has a terminal brain tumour

A fundraiser has been launched to raise money for the devastated family of one-year-old Gracie Greenwood, who was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour on Friday (3 February).

Heartbroken mum Lauren Doherty, who is expecting her second child in four weeks, said: “We have now been told there is nothing they can do to help her anymore, apart from give her an oral chemo to prolong her life, which they don't think will be very long due to the aggressiveness of the tumour.

“Being in hospital and with such intense chemotherapy, there was a chance Gracie could get really poorly and we didn’t want that, so we just stayed in at home between hospital treatments. She hasn’t had the normal life that a one-year-old should have.

“She was doing so well with her treatment and it finally felt like we got our baby back. To be told there is nothing we can do is just shocking: I can't put into words how horrible it is, but we are so desperate we will try anything to save her.

“If there are no alternative treatments, we plan to make family memories like we should have been doing all along.”

Her family, from Rochdale, have to wait two weeks to find out if Gracie is eligible for one trial in the country: if the tumour does not have a certain mutation, her parents will be forced to look abroad for other clinical trials.

Gracie was diagnosed with the brain tumour in August last year, after she began to forget how to walk and talk and suffered with her co-ordination, at just 11 months old. She underwent a 12-hour operation to remove the majority of the tumour, which was stopped as she lost a large quantity of blood.

A biopsy later revealed that the tumour (an embryonal tumour with multi-layered rosettes, or ETMR), located between two main arteries in her brain, was cancerous and Gracie underwent further operations, spending her first birthday in hospital.

The World Health Organisation classifies EMTR as Grade IV, the most severe grading. Whilst a rare brain tumour, ETMR affects more girls than boys and most commonly affecting children under the age of two.

Gracie was responding well to chemotherapy, but became ill over Christmas with chest infections and colds. Her blood counts weren’t high enough for her to finish her last round of chemotherapy, instead starting it when she became better.

A routine MRI showed the tumour had grown back, which her parents, Lauren Doherty and Zak Greenwood, believe happened over the three weeks Gracie wasn’t undergoing chemotherapy due to her illness.

To donate, visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/3c7bnew