Florence's story
Florence, age six, was initially unwell with a high temperature approximately two weeks prior to her Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) diagnosis.
During this time, she was treated for croup, an ear infection and tonsillitis as well as suffering with nausea, headaches and severe mouth ulcers.
Florence was seen at her local urgent care centre three times as well as A&E twice. On the second visit to A&E Florence’s mum insisted on a blood test as she just knew something wasn’t right. Within an hour she had a diagnosis of leukaemia.
Florence began an intensive chemotherapy regime the next day.
Her initial bone marrow biopsy result came back showing that she was in the 'high risk’ category with rare genetic mutations. Sadly this means she requires a stem cell transplant within six weeks. There is also a high risk of this failing.
Currently there is no match for Florence on the worldwide blood stem cell donor register. For now, the doctors treating her have proceeded with a second course of more intensive chemotherapy as the initial treatment was not as effective as they hoped.
Florence is the happiest, most caring and funny little girl you will ever meet. She is one of a kind and a ray of sunshine. She melts the heart of everyone that meets her. Whilst in hospital undergoing treatment, she is still worrying about the other children on the ward and helping them feel better. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Florence has one sibling, her eight-year-old brother Freddie. Unfortunately, he is not a match for her.
Florence is a really girly girl who absolutely loves singing, playing Disney princesses and loves dogs. They have a cockapoo called Wilson who she misses a lot.
Florence’s Auntie Lauren says “We need to make as many people as possible aware of the situation to help save as many lives and find as many matches as we can. You never think this will happen to your family but when it does you would go to any length to save them.”