FIVE-year-old Romy McGahy is continuing her battle against cancer.
The La Mare de Carteret reception pupil was rushed to Southampton in November after a scan revealed an 18cm tumour in her stomach. Tests subsequently showed that the cancer had spread to other parts of her body.
Since then she has endured eight rounds of chemotherapy, countless scans and blood transfusions and celebrated her birthday and Christmas. Romy’s mother Helen, father Tom and one-year-old sister Zephyr have been with her in Southampton with support from the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation, which has provided one of its flats for the family to live in, and hundreds of people who raised more than £50,000.
‘It’s hard to believe that nearly three months have already passed. Romy has endured so much in such a short space of time and we have such a long way to go but the support we have had from family, friends and total strangers has given us so much strength,’ said Mrs McGahy.
Unlike other children on the ward, Romy was unable to leave hospital for Christmas Day but the family and nurses had decorated her room and they were able to open presents and have Christmas lunch. ‘Romy had finished a round of chemo on Christmas Eve and so was a bit sicky but otherwise she was in good spirits and it was wonderful to spend some time together as those moments have been rare,’ said Mr McGahy.
‘Father Christmas brought her a toy pig which walks, makes noises and sucks from a bottle. Romy loves anything to do with babies so she has absolutely loved playing with that.’
Romy is due to have her stem cells harvested in the next few weeks which will then be frozen ready to be given back to her after she has finished the high dose chemotheraphy which had originally been planned for later this year.
‘Initial scans in the last couple of weeks suggest that she has not responded as well as was hoped to her initial phase of chemotherapy. Futher tests will confirm this in the next couple of weeks but she will almost certainly need additional chemotherapy or other treatment before continuing with the original schedule of high dose chemotherapy,’ said Mrs McGahy, who recently shaved her head in solidarity with Romy whose hair is falling out as a result of the chemotherapy.
‘If the surgeons think they can operate to remove the tumour, without losing one of her kidneys, she will have surgery before the high dose chemotherapy. If they think a kidney will be lost, the surgery will be left until later as she will need to go into the high dose chemotherapy with both her kidneys. Sadly, for the time being, her treatment path remains unclear until she shows a better response.’
Romy’s parents are heavily involved in her care and treatment and last month were able to take Romy back to the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation flat for the first time.
‘Tom and I are like ships in the night and when Romy was allowed out of hospital for three hours it was the first time both Tom and I had ever been at the flat together at the same time.Tom sleeps overnight in the hospital with Romy as I am still feeding Zephyr, then we swap in the morning and I spend as much of the day there as I can while Tom cares for Zephyr,’ said Mrs McGahy.
‘Caring for Romy in the hospital is full-time as we help her with toileting, administer her busy schedule of medicines ourselves down her NG tube, meet with the consultant each day and fix snacks and drinks for her as well as trying to keep her entertained or comfortable. There is rarely a moment to sit down between caring for her, entertaining her and liaising with the dietician, nurses, hospital teacher, play specialist, physiotherapists and doctors but we are determined to do all we can to help her through this nightmare.’
An important part of supporting their daughter is by both being in Southampton. When they became parents, Mr & Mrs McGahy took the decision for her to become a stay-at-home mother.
‘My work has been incredibly supportive during our first couple of months but we now have no income and know that we will be here for at least a year. The fundraising, which we still can’t believe, means we can continue to pay our mortgage and cover our living expenses. As a one wage family, we had already been living frugally and so our plan is that any money left can be given back to the charities who have supported us,’ said Mr McGahy.
The family will soon have their car in the UK as Condor is transporting it across free of charge and Helping Jonah, Helping Others has provided a sat nav and is helping cover petrol costs.
‘We can’t thank people enough for the support they have given. It’s overwhelming and what makes Guernsey the special place it is. This is every parent’s worst nightmare but knowing that we have so much support gives us strength to keep positive for Romy,’ said Mrs McGahy.
The family is keeping friends and family up to date through a blog website at www.romyocean.gg which they hope will help other families in the future.
‘There were a number of reasons behind the website. We want it to be full of memories for Zephyr and Romy to look back on in years to come. It has also been therapeutic for both of us to write a blog and help us through these times and keep everyone up to date on Romy’s progress, we are trying to be as positive as we can be with the updates and so often don’t go into too much detail. Many of the donations to the page were anonymous or from people we didn’t know so we want them to know the difference their donation has had and keep them updated,’ said Mrs McGahy.
‘Also, as a parent thrown into a crazy new world of oncology lingo and hospital protocols, we were so out of our depth at first but found there was little out there to read on the internet. Hopefully our blog might help other parents going through such a devastating diagnosis in future.’
