Izzy's Story

Izzy at the age of 15 was preparing for her GCSEs and looking forward to her prom and everything that year 11 would bring.

She is a very keen hockey goalie and plays for her school, club and Somerset county.

She injured herself at a hockey match in the summer of 2024 and never seemed to recover, then over the course of a few months started experiencing extreme nerve pain all down her leg. After many months of extensive tests she was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma in Dec 2024.

A large mass was found at the base of her spine in the bone and tissue surrounding.

She has had a gruelling 14 cycles of intense chemotherapy to shrink the mass on and more recently 33 sessions of proton radiotherapy in London.

This has involved months of hospital stays away from home and exceptionally large doses of drugs and pain medication which have made her very ill at times.

‘Treatment’ finished on 02nd August but Izzy has unfortunately been in hospital since with further infections and complications.

She has an MRI on the 26th August to find out how successful the treatment has been and what the next steps are. She has got several months of physiotherapy ahead to help her be able to build up strength and walk again.

Izzy has put her name forward for a trial drug so we await to see if she has been accepted on that which will be a further 6 months of treatment.

Anyone who knows Izzy knows what a vivacious and energetic teenager she is. She has been incredibly brave and resilient despite the pain, losing her hair and suffering numerous infections. Her smile and positive attitude is contagious.

We are so very grateful to Ben Saunders for this opportunity to get away and have some kind of ‘normal’. We look forward to spending some quality time with each other as a family that isn’t in a medical setting - thank you so much.