Inside The Sick Children’s Trust’s first ever Christmas appeal

The Lloyd family from Southsea are supporting The Sick Children’s Trust’s first ever Christmas appeal – ‘All I want for Christmas’ which aims to raise £13,140, enough to run its ten ‘Homes from Home’ during the festive period, providing essential emotional and practical support to families in need. Each house is located at a leading specialist children’s hospital, just a few minutes away from the paediatric intensive care wards, so parents can create magical memories with their seriously ill child. Mum Marie Lloyd tells their story:

“My daughter Daisy is the kindest and loveliest girl. There isn’t one bad bone in her body.

“Daisy was born with bilateral retinoblastoma – a cancer which had developed in the retina of both her eyes, but she wasn’t diagnosed until she was 12 months old. We honestly had no idea she had it, because she was walking and crawling everywhere, even though she actually had little sight because her eyes were riddled with tumours.

“Initially we were treated at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where Daisy underwent nine months of chemotherapy. But sadly, it wasn’t enough and at 15 months old, she had to have an eye removed. But despite this preventative measure, it didn’t mean that cancer was gone – or would stop spreading. Six weeks later, as Daisy went for another eye check it revealed that more tumours had developed. At that point we were transferred to The Royal London Children’s Hospital, where Daisy was given radiation to try and save her other eye. But the tumours came back.