On 11th January Rose gave us her last smile, the smile that lit up a room and something we took for granted. The smile was one of the first things the tumour took from our girl. Rose was labelled nil by mouth within minutes and within a few hours blue-lighted via ambulance transfer on 12 January 2020 to the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, Wales. After several MRI’s, CT scans, three brain surgeries, several seizures and 6 nights spent in the Paediatric Critical Care Unit on, 28th January 2020 we received the soul destroying news that Rose's condition was not a routine bowel issue, but cancer, named A.T.R.T, Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour, a rare tumour affecting the brain and spinal cord. The large tumour in her spine had been causing the bowel problems, yet our resilient and beautiful girl failed to give any signs or present any other symptoms for almost 5
months. Rose done it her way.
There was no treatment, there were no further surgeries that could be done, to be told as parents we had ‘a few weeks at most’ with our gorgeous girl, was the most heartbreaking words ever to have reached our ears.
On 10th February we were transferred to Ty Hafan, we as a family chose to go for Rose to grow her wings. Then just 2 days after her first birthday, on the 13th February 2020, Rose passed away in her Mam’s arms, the place she found the most comfort.