SWINDON CANCER APPEAL: Last week, we launched the Swindon Cancer Appeal to raise £600,000 for Macmillan - enough money to fund two Macmillan nurses for the Great Western Hospital and a consultant in cancer care for three years. Today, 12-year-old Abigail Taylor-Silk talks of how she is coping with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. ALEX EMERY reports.

Abigail Taylor-Silk is not yet a teenager but the courage she has shown in the last year would put most adults to shame.

Throughout her year-long battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the 12-year-old's bravery hasn't wavered.

And despite undergoing painful chemotherapy sessions and losing her hair several times, Abigail's smile remains intact.

Two weeks ago doctors told her she was in remission, but Abigail is philosophical about her situation.

"I've learned to take things as they come," she said. "It's good news that I'm in remission but I have met so many people who think they have beaten cancer only to have a relapse.

"If I get it again at least I will know what to expect. It won't be anything different. I can't say I'll never get cancer again because I don't know. No one knows.

"But I'm not frightened about the future."

Abigail, who attends the Ridgeway School when she is well enough, says the cancer first showed itself as a lump on her neck last April.

She said: "I remember the day the lump came up. I had bumped my neck at school. When I came home that evening I felt really tired and felt a lump on the side of my neck.

"I just thought it was a result of the bump. My mum and dad thought I had mumps so we went to the doctor the next day.

"I was referred to the Princess Margaret Hospital for blood tests because they thought my lymph glands were infected. I was given antibiotics and told to go back a few days later if the lump was still there."

But the antibiotics proved ineffective so Abigail was admitted to hospital for a CAT scan.

There Abigail's parents Denise, 38, an auxiliary nurse at the Great Western Hospital's maternity ward, and Richard, 48, a recycling operative, were given the news that their daughter had cancer.

Abigail said: "I was kept in a different room because mum and dad were told before me so I didn't know what was going on or what to think.

"When I found out I felt quite shocked. It sort of went in one ear and out the other. I waited a week until the doctors did a biopsy to examine a small part of the lump.

"I still didn't really know what to think, even though I knew it was cancer."

At the end of April, Abigail started the first of three sessions of chemotherapy at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.

Even then her bravery didn't falter. She said: "The chemo made me tired rather than ill. I never threw up or anything afterwards, which is good. I had two days rest, then went back to school.

"After the third lot I lost all my hair. It gradually came out in clumps and then I'd wake up and find it sprinkled all over my pillow.

"At first I wore a bandana to school to hide the fact my hair had fallen out.

"But a couple of the other children used to pull it off as I was walking along so I decided I wanted to buy a wig. I was much happier with that. It's got long hair down my back."

By July, Abigail had finished the chemotherapy and her hair started to grow back. But she was required to take tablet forms of chemotherapy.

"I was taking five tablets a day for three more months," she said. "In October I had another scan which confirmed they weren't working.

"The lump had grown 75 per cent bigger but doctors weren't sure if it was active or not. After another scan I was told there were two lumps in my neck, which had joined together.

"I felt more frightened than when I was first told I had cancer. Most people are told the more tumours they have, the less likely they are to make it, so I was a bit worried.

"I sort of thought what was the point of going through the chemotherapy in the first place if it wasn't working?"

As a result, Abigail returned to John Radcliffe in December for a higher dose of chemotherapy.

On Christmas Day, though, the youngster's white blood cell count dropped to a dangerous low putting her into what is known as a neutropenic state.

"I felt awful then," she said. "My bones felt very tired but even then I wasn't ill. It only lasted a few days and then I was okay again."

Just last month Abigail's stem cells were harvested. This is a procedure carried out prior to administering a high dose of chemo. The blood stem cells are removed and frozen in plasma.

Following the chemo, which Abigail will receive on March 27, the stem cells will be given a boosting growth factor and replaced in her body.

She explained: "The growth factor helps the blood cells grow again into bone marrow once they are put back. They have to be removed otherwise the chemo would kill them all off.

"Then the idea is when they are put back all the cancer has been killed off and I'll have healthy blood cells again.

"I'm going to have to be in isolation at the hospital for a month after the procedure because my immune system will be very low. Mum will stay there with me as my carer."

And with characteristic frankness Abigail added: "After that I'm going to have radiotherapy every day for a month at Oxford's Churchill Hospital. They'll just zap it a bit so it won't be too bad.

"And then it'll be my birthday."

After talking to Abigail it seems almost incredible that the birthday is only her 13th, such is her maturity.

"The worst part about everything was having to give up the things I love," she said. "I used to really enjoy Tae Kwon Do, swimming and trampolining.

"I might take it up again when the treatment is all over. I'll just have to see."

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