20-month-old Gracie Greenwood has died

Lauren Doherty and Zak Greenwood with one-year-old daughter Gracie Greenwood

Gracie Greenwood died aged just 20-months-old on the morning of Monday 1 May, after battling a terminal brain tumour.

Gracie was initially diagnosed with a brain tumour in August last year, after she began to forget how to walk and talk and suffered with her co-ordination, when she was just 11-months-old. In February 2017, it was revealed the tumour was terminal.

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. 

On Saturday, 6 May a balloon release and minute’s silence will take place at 7.00pm at Littleborough Cricket Club.

20 balloons will be released by Lucy Greenwood, one for each month of Gracie’s ‘short but truly inspirational little life’.  

Anybody who would like to join or bring their own balloons is welcome.