A TERRIFIED mum nervously fears the worst each time her daughter gets a headache after mistaking her cancer symptoms for a flu.
Ceri Roberts, of Gwynedd, Wales, became worried when her daughter Indeg, seven, started getting sick – but says she never imagined a cancerous growth was the cause.
As the pandemic raged in 2020, Indeg began showing signs of illness prompting her mum and dad too seek possible explanations from doctors.
Indeg had been vomiting “on-and-off” but her parents weren’t too concerned after being told it was likely stomach problems or due to anxiety.
But when Indeg went off her food and began losing weight rapidly in November 2020, Ceri took her to the GP.
The youngster was referred to a hospital in Bangor where a CT scan revealed Indeg had a brain tumour.
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Ceri recalls the lead-up to finding out and realising Indeg was facing a health battle far more serious than the flu.
She said: “I said to the nurse, ‘I know what you’re looking for,’ I knew they were looking for a tumour.
“Within about an hour we had the results back and that’s when they told us.
“When the doctor said it was a brain tumour, I just fell to my knees and cried and cried – it was like an out of body experience.”
Due to the Covid restrictions, Ceri was the only one with Indeg at the hospital and she had to pass on the devastating news on the phone.
Indeg was diagnosed with Ependymoma – a cancer which forms in the brain or spinal cord and affects 30 UK children annually.
At Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Indeg underwent a nine-hour operation to remove the tumour.
The brave fighter then faced a gruelling treatment plan of five bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well as proton beam therapy.
Ceri told North Wales News: “We moved to Manchester for two months while she had the treatment, we’d never been away from her sisters before, and we were a long way from home.
“It was very upsetting to be away at Christmas, and Indeg was so poorly – though I think she coped better than I did.”
Once she was through her darkest days, the Make A Wish UK charity contacted the family to ask if Indeg would like to request something.
Having deeply missed playing outside through her ordeal, it didn’t take Indeg long to decide she wished for a climbing frame.
Ceri said: “Playing outside and using the climbing frame really got her through those dark times.
“It’s one of the first things she said when we told her about the wish, she made her mind up that that’s what she wanted very quickly.”
The doting mum says it brings her joy to see Indeg and her sisters playing outside – but her health battle will never be far from Ceri’s mind.
She said: “I’ll always worry about her, whenever she mentions a headache I panic, and the fear of it coming back is horrible, but I know that we’ve done everything we can.”
