Megan's Story

After a wonderful summer holiday in August 2024, we first began to see signs something was wrong in early Autumn when Megan started to become breathless and complain of a tight chest after exercise that would previously been routine.

A trip to the doctor brought about a consideration of asthma, however around October half term period it became apparent that there may be something more seriously wrong as she started to suffer from repeated infections, become very pale in colour and visibly lost weight.

After some back and forth to the GP, and a struggle to get blood tests through the GP service, we eventually had enough and took her to A&E a few days before Christmas.

The amazing staff at the John Radcliffe paediatric A&E took our concerns seriously and quickly ran blood tests. It rapidly became clear how poorly she was with very low blood counts across the board, she was admitted to the Children’s Hospital and given two blood transfusions along with platelets and antibiotics through the night.

Following a bone marrow biopsy the next day, we finally received the diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia on Christmas Eve.
After spending Christmas at home, Megan was the re-admitted on 30th December to begin induction treatment. She coped very well with induction, and it was lovely to see her regaining colour and putting weight back on. However, we then had more difficulties as we hit the next phases, with repeated admissions into hospital with infections, and treatment related side effects. By early summer, she was doing much better and managed to return to school on a part time basis for the final few weeks of the school year.
We worked through the next stages of treatments, and Megan entered maintenance treatment in November 2024, and managed a phased return to full time school by the end of the winter term. Her maintenance treatment will continue until the end of January 2027, when baring any relapses, her treatment should be complete.

Throughout this whole process, Megan has dealt with her situation with a level of pragmatism, grace and resilience that most adults would struggle with. Throughout this process we have received amazing support from our family, our employers, some wonderful friends who have stepped in with childcare support for our other daughter and of course the outstanding team in Kamran’s Ward at the Oxford Children’s hospital.
This experience has made us really cherish the moments we get to spend together as a family, and we are incredibly grateful to the Ben Saunders Foundation for the opportunity to do this in the lovely setting of the Cotswolds Hoburne holiday park.