Six-year-old girl given just weeks to live after 'arm sprain' turned out to be cancer
A little girl has been given just weeks to live after her arm pain turned out to be a rare form of childhood cancer.
Six-year-old Bonnie-Leigh Spence, from the UK, had to have most of her left arm amputated in a bid to remove the cancerous area after being diagnosed with cancer in February of last year.
The youngster had developed a lump on her arm, which then came with sharp pain in December 2024.
Caroline Spence, the girl’s step-mother, revealed that doctors thought it was a sprain, until Bonnie-Leigh returned for a second time and her arm was scanned.
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The scan tragically confirmed that Bonnie had a rare, aggressive form of childhood cancer called Rhabdoid Sarcoma.
RS is typically found in the kidneys but can also form in the brain or other soft tissues.
Caroline, 32, explained that the initial prognosis got worse when tests revealed the cancer had spread.
She explained: "Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle did a full body MRI and found it had spread to her lungs. It had started cutting off nerves and leaking toxins into her kidneys.
“They had to amputate her arm above her elbow and after that she had chemo for 28 weeks. She had it every two weeks, it was an intense 28 weeks.
"Around June time she had two weeks of radiotherapy to try and shrink the tumors in the lungs. They were huge.”
Even after a course of chemotherapy, doctors sadly told the family that the tumors had come back in her lungs and were ‘building up momentum again.’
"The doctors have said she’s had the maximum dosage of chemotherapy, so now we’re waiting for the tumors in her body essentially,” shared Caroline.
“They’re just waiting for it to hit its momentum, they’ve said it would be about mid-March. It would be days after it peaks that we could lose, so we're told we have roughly eight weeks. The cancer has doubled again in six weeks.”
Because of the weeks given for Bonnie-Leigh to live, the family is now fundraising to afford some life experiences for her before she passes.
As of right now, Bonnie’s dad, Iain, an HGV driver and former soldier, and Caroline, a midwife, are on leave from work so they can care for her.
Caroline said they have set up a GoFundMe account, but were not hopeful it would be up for long due to the prognosis.
However, they ended up being able to afford a couple of amazing things for her, such as Disneyland, walking the Rangers pitch, and also walking with Newcastle United’s captain at the start of the match.
“We’ve had to fit a lifetime worth of memories into a year,” Caroline explained.
Soon, they said they’ll visit Iain’s parents in Spain, and ‘enjoy the beach even though it’s not warm enough’, they recently bought a puppy, and booked ‘a couple of UK breaks planned in the Lake District’ with the funds.
UNILAD reached out to East Lancashire Hospitals for comment.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
Britt Jones