Woodford Green toddler winning leukaemia battle as parents raise £25k for Great Ormond Street Hospital

Lizzie Dearden, Reporter Tuesday, March 12, 2013
4:22 PM

A Woodford Green toddler battling leukaemia is on her way to recovery after coming through six months of intensive treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Karen with Isaac and Yasmin. Photo By Andrew Parsons / i-Images

Two-year-old Yasmin Parsons will still have to have chemotherapy at home, as well as regular visits from nurses and hospital trips but doctors have told her family she is 97 per cent cured.

Parents Andrew Parsons and Karen Attwood, of Danbury Way, have been taking donations for the hospital through their blog Our Life With Leukaemia.

They have so far raised an incredible £25,000 and have no plans to stop their efforts.

Yasmin has lost her hair through chemotherapy and has had to undergo painful procedures and tests but mum Ms Attwood said her spirits are high.

She added: “She’s started going to nursery two days a week and it’s nice to see her playing.

“She’s very well but Andrew had to take her into hospital at 1am on Mothers’ Day when she had a high temperature.”

Ms Attwood was left at home with eight-month-old son Isaac until Yasmin was discharged from Whipps Cross Hospital at 6pm but still got a big bunch of flowers.

Yasmin is set to be on “maintenance” treatment for another 18 months and could be monitored for the rest of her life.

Ms Attwood said: “It’s still a hell of a lot of treatment and it’s a lot to go through.

“We’ve been told that the leukaemia is all gone as far as doctors are concerned – all the other treatment is to make sure it doesn’t come back.”

Yasmin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at Great Ormond Street last August after weeks of hospital visits and dashes to accident and emergency that left doctors flummoxed over the cause of her illness and pain.

The cancer can be fatal but is successfully treated in the majority of cases.

Great Ormond Street Hospital, in central London, offers state-of-the art care for ill children but needs to raise over £50million for its work every year.

Read the blog and donate to Great Ormond Street at www.ourlifewithleukaemia.blogspot.co.uk.