In October 2009, Nora was diagnosed with ATRT (Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour) a rare and very aggressive tumour. It all happened so suddenly, we had no idea that Nora was not well. One night she started vomiting and we took her to hospital to be checked. The medical staff told us that she was just constipated and to go home as nothing was wrong with her. Nora slept from 5 am till midday the next day, it was not normal for Nora to sleep during the day, so we tried to wake her up but she wasn't responding. She was in a coma caused by the tumour in her brain.

That was the start of Nora's battle to survive. She went through an immediate operation to save her life, followed by a nine hour operation where the surgeon achieved miraculously a total resection of the tumour without touching her brain stem. After recovering from surgery, Nora and I moved to London and met the oncologist. He suggested that Nora should be administered a particular protocol that in his opinion might work for ATRT patients however this protocol was not yet certified as the official European ATRT protocol! It was only 7 months later that it was certified as the official protocol to use in Europe . He also said that survival statistics were non existent and that if we walked in his office two years prior, he would have told us that no one could do anything to help Nora.

Nora started her treatment immediately. She went through 6 blocks of Chemotherapy, 30 days of Focal Radiotherapy, High Dose Chemotherapy and two Stem Cells Transplants. We were constantly in and out of hospital, we lived more in hospital then we did at home. Due to no immunity after chemotherapy, the few weeks at home were usually disrupted by a high fever and some kind of new infection and we would rush back into hospital, always hoping that the infection can be controlled and not take her to her death bed. Due to the fact that the tumour was so aggressive, the doctors suggested that we should give Nora, High Dose Chemotherapy, to make sure that all cancerous cells are killed off. Doctors said that it was manageable, but it turned out not to be manageable at all. Nora ended up in ITU under life support for 30 days, sedated, with internal bleeding (bleeding 400 mils to 700 mils at a time), a collapsed lung, all organs failing and no immunity for 66 days. After two weeks under life support, ITU doctors were not confident that Nora was going to make it. On the other hand, I knew that she had a big will to live and I knew that she would wake up. So I waited, I washed her, read to her, spoke to her and told her about the great summer we were going to have in Malta. Three weeks later, to the doctors surprise, we started seeing a change, her organs were regenerating, her breathing was getting better and exactly 30 days later Nora woke up. Off the oscillator, off the ventilator and straight into my arms, gazing at me and with a smile. It was the best moment of my life, my baby was back.

Two weeks later doctors said that Nora was doing great and we could return to Malta. We were so happy that Nora was doing so well and we were looking forward to returning to Malta to live a normal life. To be on the safe side, I suggested that we stay in London for another month, just to make sure that Nora was looking her best when we flew back home. We left hospital and went to our house in London. Three weeks had passed and one night, Nora could not sleep or even lie down as she was enduring a painful irritation in the brain. Turns out that Nora was suffering from encephalitis, damage of the white matter in the brain. Doctors believe it might have been caused by radiotherapy treatment. That night Nora lost her mobility and speech. Luckily enough the damage is reversible, so Nora started her recovery and is working hard to reach her full potential with the help of therapy. Due to the aggressive treatment she received, Nora will suffer the consequences for the rest of her life. Among other things, Nora lost 80% hearing in both ears. Damage to her hearing has been caused by the chemotherapy. Today she is wearing hearing aids. She also requires growth hormone injections everyday and the list goes on.

Doug and I would like to raise funds for CBTRF (Children's Brain Tumour Research Foundation) a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting research, furthering education, and building awareness about rare, malignant, childhood brain tumors. Some people might look at Nora as unlucky but in our eyes she is very lucky, If it weren't for the few years research that had been done on ATRT before Nora was diagnosed, she wouldn't have had a chance to survive. When Nora was diagnosed the first question I asked was, how did it happen to us? And someone close to my heart said, because we are people like anyone else.

Thanks to your charity torwards cancer research for children's brain tumours, we are confident that through further research they will one day find a cure which will save so many children's lives, and hopefully a protocol consisting of less aggressive treatment with less repercussions on the child's life.

Research is the only way forward to help these children and give them a chance to live.

Thank your for your support!