Burgess Hill girl Lily, 15, looks forward to starting GCSE year at school after cancer diagnosis 11 months ago

Lily Morris, who attends Burgess Hill Academy, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in October 2022 after suffering severe headaches.

Her mother Tracey, 45, said they initially went to Princess Royal in Haywards Heath where they were told it was probably a virus and to give it 24 hours.

But Tracey said: “We didn't even get to that 24 hours. We ended up twice down in the Alex (Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital) in Brighton. On the second attempt down there we got a blood test, which revealed that Lily had leukaemia.”

Tracey said the news was devastating for the family, including her husband Paul, 50, and Lily’s brother Alfie, 11, but they were told that the type of cancer Lily has is curable. Lily was transferred to St. George’s Hospital in London straightaway for chemotherapy.

Lily said: “My friends sent loads of presents when I was in hospital and so did the school.”

Tracey said the first six months of treatment was ‘intense’ with Lily spending a lot of time in hospital and having a port fitted to a vein for chemotherapy.

Now Lily has now reached a ‘maintenance’ phase where she only has chemotherapy once a month and takes oral tablets each day, which means she can attend school again.

“It feels quite normal,” said Lily. “It’s quite nice because I don’t have to worry about going into hospital every day.”

Lily said she is looking forward to catching up with her schoolwork and seeing all of her friends. She said: “My friends understand that I may not be able to do certain things that they would like to do, so they sort of revolve around me. If they want to do something but I can’t do it, they’ll ask what I’d like to do.”

Tracey added that Lily is doing well and said her hair is growing again. She said: “She’s going to be 16 next month and just for a 16 year old to get back to the girls and get back to her normal life is absolutely wonderful.”

Tracey, who owns her own cleaning company, said she was not able to work during the most intense parts of Lily’s treatment and thanked Momentum Children’s Charity for supporting the family. Visit www.momentumcharity.org.

Tracey first heard about Momentum when one of their Family Support Workers introduced herself at St. George’s Hospital. She said: “Everything has really taken its toll on us financially, and Momentum helped us to apply for grants to pay for hotels, fuel, food and other bills when Lily was in hospital.”

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and the Middy was put in contact with Lily and Tracey by Momentum.

Bianca Effemey, founder and CEO at Momentum, said: “We’d like to wish Lily the best of luck as she embarks on her final year at school. Every year, more than 1,800 families in the UK receive the devastating news that their child has cancer.”

She said Momentum are partnered with the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Worthing Hospital, and St. Richard’s Hospital, Chichester, to offer support to any family who has a child with cancer.