'Broken foot was brain tumour sign'

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By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News

Just before her operation Charlotte was face painting her parentsWithin minutes of a heavy fall in the playground Charlotte Davidson was up and running.

But two weeks later she collapsed while she was playing on a trampoline, and said her foot was moving on its own.

Her GP later confirmed she had broken her foot.

Charlotte's problems continued though last summer. She was finding it harder to walk, but it was not until her eye started to turn inward that her parents started to really think something could be seriously wrong.

Cancer diagnosis

It was.

The six-year-old from Essex was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma - a very rare cancer that affects just 100 children each year - most of whom are under five.

Her mother Lucy explained that the tumour had been pressing on Charlotte's brain, causing her difficulty with her mobility.

We were shocked, but in a sense it made more sense than her having just a broken foot Lucy Davidson

"When she collapsed on the trampoline she said her leg was moving. That was because she was having a fit, but we did not know.

"She was not in pain, but was disturbed by the twitching. I thought she had sprained a muscle or something.

"She was jumping about as normal, but gradually we started to notice that her foot turned in. At first we thought she was doing it on purpose.

"She would say that her foot felt funny and we would ask her whether she had pins and needles."

Alarms

The family went back to the doctor, and when the surgeon looked into her eyes he saw what he thought was a tumour.

"He asked us to go outside, he made a call and told us to go straight to the ward. We went up and there were two doctors waiting for us, but we still did not realise how serious it was," she said.

"We were obviously alarmed by her eye and her walking.

"We did not know what was going on, but their alarms were ringing.

Charlotte two days after her first operation

"They arranged an MRI scan (magnetic resonance imaging) for the next day and they sent her results by bike to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

"We were shocked, but in a sense it made more sense than her having just a broken foot. To be fair there were no clear signs that there was a brain tumour.

"She was taken by ambulance and that was when it hit me.

"They asked what was wrong with her and I said she had a brain tumour and I was looking at her thinking 'how can she have a brain tumour? Where is it?' There was no swelling."

Total confidence

Lucy said that from the moment she went to the hospital she felt confident that her daughter, now helping to front a fundraising campaign for the hospital, was in the best possible hands.

"I had total trust in Jessica Ternier, her consultant, because of the way she spoke to me. The whole team were very open and when I left my child with her I knew she was going to be alright."

Within hours of her eight-and-a-half hour operation Charlotte was sitting up in bed, eating ice cream.

But doctors were not able to get all the tumour out in the first operation because she had a brain bleed, and just days later Charlotte needed another operation to remove the remaining 30%.

This time, all the tumour was removed.

However doctors admitted that because the tumour was just millimetres away from the brain's motor strip (a band running down the side of the frontal lobe of the brain that controls all bodily movements) they had not been able to take away the usual "safety margin" of tissue alongside the tumour.

This meant Charlotte also needed radiotherapy.

Delicate

She is now back at school and recent MRI scans have proved positive, but the family must wait five years for the all-clear, as children who relapse after having neuroblastoma have very poor prognosis.

Lucy said: "She lost her hair and has a horrendous scar.

"But at Christmas she was dancing and being Charlotte, and I thought she is back - she is going to be all right.

"She is on tablets for epilepsy, but she is doing really well and her eye is returning to normal."

Dr Ternier, who carried out both Charlotte's operations, said the surgery had been delicate.

"It was really close to the motor strip so we had to go really gently as she could have been left immobile on her right side.

"We got the cancer out though and she has had radiotherapy, so now we must wait and see."