A Nottingham mother of a child who has bravely battled cancer is urging parents to get their children checked quickly if they are showing symptoms of cancer despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alice during her treatment.

Alice was just four when Jane Icke and her husband noticed that Alice had a persistent cough. Alice was treated with antibiotics, but the cough didn’t go away. Jane then noticed that Alice’s tummy was  swollen. “There was nothing at that moment that made me really scared because she didn’t have anything else that I was worried about other than this persistent cough that I didn’t connect,” says Jane.

When Alice had a dance costume fitted the swollen tummy became more noticeable and Jane’s husband was particularly concerned because Alice’s tummy felt quite hard. “I was thinking Alice might have an intestinal blockage or something like that. Alice was at an age where she had always been a fussy eater and she had been at nursery, so she was getting tired. I’d not been able to put these things together because at the time this could have been her normal childhood behaviour,” Jane adds.

The couple swiftly took Alice to their GP Practice. The doctor examined Alice with a more senior doctor and sent the family to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. “I was thinking maybe Alice has got a hernia or something, you never think cancer. We went to Queen’s and she was running around the place like a normal 4-year-old, playing with the toys and causing havoc! Apart from all these funny little symptoms she was ok,” adds Jane.

Alice was taken straight up to the assessment unit and she was examined by a specialist doctor. “She said ‘I’m really sorry I have to tell you this but I’m pretty sure this is cancer.” Next day, we met the consultant at the QMC and after all the tests Alice was diagnosed with a kidney cancer called a ‘Wilms tumour’. It was a huge shock to all of us and it is not ever what you expect. Cancer is the last thing that you think of with children but the team on E39 Ward at the QMC were amazing.

Alice had six weeks of chemotherapy in 2014 to shrink the tumour and a 7-hour operation to remove the tumour and the kidney. This was followed by another six months of chemotherapy which mops up any residual cells which might be floating, followed by radiotherapy. Alice had six months in the clear but in 2015 after regular follow up scans a little nodule on her lung was discovered. That is a place where Wilms will spread to, so Alice had to start all over again with relapse treatment which was much more aggressive. Blood and platelet transfusions were a regular occurrence. A stem cell transplant was the final part of the treatment in February 2016.

Alice has been an inspiration to both her parents and everyone who has cared for her. “She has always been an amazing little character with her feisty attitude and is so strong minded. Much of the time it was her strength of character that got us all through it really. We had awful times when she was really poorly, but she always tried to bounce back and never let it get her down too much,” explains Jane.

“Alice is now 10 and is doing amazingly well. She has just joined a swimming club and goes dancing and is a girl guide. She went through some really tough times and the second round of treatment – the stem cell part – was particularly tough. The doctors and nurses were just fantastic and did everything they could to get us all through it,” adds Jane.

For parents who are currently concerned about any of their children and are worried about taking it any further during the pandemic, Jane’s message is clear. “If there is anything unusual with a child that’s just not right then take action. My husband in particular had a gut feeling that this lump just doesn’t feel right. So just act on your parental instinct and make an appointment to speak to your GP. If we hadn’t have gone that day Alice might have got to a real critical point where she would have had to have been rushed to A & E and it might have been a different outcome. So, if you see any symptoms that you are unsure about or that your gut feeling just says this doesn’t seem like my child or doesn’t seem right, then take them definitely,” says Jane.

Alice today.

Jane has this reassuring message for parents who are concerned about taking their children to hospital in the current pandemic. “Alice had a six-monthly scan in May during the first wave of the Covid-19 virus and I had thought that the hospital would cancel it, but it went ahead. I felt very safe being there and I was glad to go because otherwise we would have had to wait longer and as a parent your anxiety starts to kick in if you have to wait too long.”

“I would encourage anyone who has got any appointments for anything like that to carry on with it. I think of all places hospitals are going to be the best to keep you safe. It’s what they do day in day out. We got very used to being on the cancer wards where hand sanitising and cleanliness is second nature every day.”

Finally, Jane encourages any parents who are currently going through a similar experience with their children to hold on to hope. “As a family we always looked on the positives. As soon as we had a treatment plan and we knew that this was curable that’s all we hung on to.”

“We took everything one day at a time and when things were good we would do fun things and when things were difficult we’d take support from people offering it. At the start of it all it feels like a never-ending journey and feels hugely unfair that it’s happening to your child, but it’s just one of those things that you have got to accept that is happening. Just know that every treatment and every bad day is a step closer to that end point and you will get there eventually.”