Wish stories

“In January 2021 after some tests in the hospital we had been told that the lump in her stomach was because she had blocked bowels”, explains Dulcie's mum, Debra. “We were concerned that it was something else so asked for more tests.” In November of the same year, after almost a year of going back and forth to the GP they thought it might be celiac disease but were instead told it could be cancer. Shortly after she was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. In March 2022, after months of high intense chemotherapy, Dulcie had her tumour removed. The tumour weighed 1.2kg and was over 30cm in length.

“We’re here now in February 2024 and we still haven’t met the end of her treatment. She’s currently on her second clinical trial, receiving treatment every two weeks in a hospital 176 miles away.”

Dulcie’s diagnosis meant that she wasn’t able to do things that normal children do. She missed out on sleepovers and school trips. “If she’s well enough to go on school trips, I have to go with her because of her Hickman line and all of the medication”, Mum explains.

As a seven year old Dulcie understands what cancer can do. “She asked me what happens if I don’t beat cancer” said mum “For my seven-year-old daughter to ask me that just broke me.”

According to Debra, Dulcie meeting so many different doctors and nurses during her years of treatment has brought her out of her shell and made her positive and outgoing.

Dulcie would often watch reruns of Britain’s Got Talent in hospital, and had always wanted to see it live. Thanks to Make-A-Wish UK, Dulcie had her wish turned into a reality when she got the chance to walk the Britain’s Got Talent red carpet with paparazzi calling her name and taking pictures of her, before being a special VIP in the show’s audience.

“They go through so much – they don’t get a say in their treatment, we have to tell them where to go, where to be. She’s forced to do things she didn’t ask for. But the wish is her wish, it’s something she can control and is something that they can enjoy. If it wasn’t for people donating to charities like Make-A-Wish, I don’t know if she would be able to have that experience. It’s a memory that we’ll treasure and will last forever.”