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Gail Porter with Yami Molina Kerr at a fundraising auction |
‘It happened so quickly – she showed no signs of being ill’
Parents of tragic Isabella are raising funds to help find a cure for rare brain cancer
TO her parents, Isabella Kerr Molina seemed a typical, healthy four-year-old – bright, energetic and with a passion for painting.
But seven months after being diagnosed with a rare brain tumour Isabella’s life was cut tragically short.
Few people have heard of brain stem glioma, the disease which killed the Belsize Park schoolgirl in 2006, and doctors have still not found a cure.
Isabella’s mother, Yami, said: “When it happened to Isabella it was all so quick.
“She was absolutely a perfect child, she didn’t show any signs of anything. When the doctors tell you it’s a terminal disease you’re just in shock.”
One in 600 children will get a cancerous tumour before they are 15 but only 40 children in the UK are diagnosed with the glioma tumour.
The brain stem glioma tumour strangles the thick chord of nerves that runs between the body and the brain – known as the pons – resulting in a loss of feeling and movement.
In advanced cases, sufferers can lose the ability to speak or talk before their eventual death.
Doctors still do not understand what causes the illness. Radiotherapy is currently the most effective treatment, but its success rate is still less than 2 per cent.
Dr Anthony Michalski, a consultant paediatric oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, who treated Isabella, said: “It’s a very frightening, tragic and horrible death. And sadly death is what happens to most of these children.
“We have made no progress with this disease in 40 years.
“Paradoxically, as we get better at making the diagnosis, the cure rate decreases, as we realise that historically some of the survivors didn’t have the disease at all.”
But progress is now being made – thanks to Isabella’s tireless parents.
The Isabella Kerr Molina Foundation has raised more than £60,000 to fund research to find the genetic fingerprint of Isabella’s illness.
Former model Gail Porter, whose daughter goes to school with Isabella’s sister, has also helped bolster the coffers.
Charles Kerr says the mission is clear: “to raise money... so other children and their families do not have to endure the savagery of the brutal illness which affected us”.
Ms Molina added: “We want people to know about the disease itself, what is being done and what is not. At the moment it’s totally underfunded. For me I think this is my mission in life – for Isabella. She’s not here with us any more and we have to do something about it.”
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