Schoolgirl, 16, denied most cancers remedy as a result of she’s ‘too previous’

A 16-year-old girl who is fighting cancer has been forced to fundraise for her own treatment after being told she is both too young and too old to be eligible for it on the NHS.

Faith Shone suffers from leukaemia, which was caused by the heavy doses of chemotherapy she received two years ago to treat a leg tumour.

Doctors say heavier doses of chemotherapy could cause her heart to fail, which means her only options are stem cell and CAR-T therapies as part of a trial.

But 16 and 17-year-olds are not eligible for any medical trials for treatments for illnesses – because they are neither classed as an adult nor a child.

Faith Shone, 16, is fundraising for her own cancer treatment after being told she is both too old and too young to be eligible for NHS trials

If Faith was under the age of 16 or over 18 she would be able to have the trial, but instead her family now need to raise £70,000 to get the treatment privately.

Faith’s father, Tim, 43, said: ‘It is a race against the clock and, in many ways so unfair.

‘If Faith were any younger, or 18 and over, we’d immediately be putting her through for a free trial.

‘But due to this crazy anomaly of 16 and 17-year-olds not having them, we have got a fundraising emergency to contend with first.

‘And if doctors hadn’t dismissed her symptoms for months, she would also have been eligible and caught the illness sooner.

‘This blind spot is ridiculous and it must affect a lot of teenagers, given how many children have cancer these days.’

Faith, of Leigh, Greater Manchester, was 13 when she discovered a lump on her leg and tests discovered it was a rare sarcoma that required intensive chemotherapy.

She also underwent radiotherapy and an operation removing the tumour, which meant she was cancer-free.

But the schoolgirl then started to feel exhausted and dizzy when she woke up and she also began bruising easier than normal.

Faith, pictured with sisters Isla, 10 (left), and Skye, 13 (right). Faith was found to have developed leukaemia caused by intense chemotherapy she had when she was 13

Her family were told by doctors not to worry and she was eventually given some folate tablets, as her vitamin B9 levels were low.

A bone marrow sample was put in her spine and in April this year, she was diagnosed with leukaemia – which was caused by the intense chemotherapy she had aged 13.

Tim says that if doctors had first listened to the family’s concerns, then she could have had treatment on a medical trial as she was still 15.

He said: ‘We had been asking the consultant for months because something wasn’t right. She was bleeding and bruising.

‘They didn’t believe this was what the symptoms were, so they didn’t investigate further.’

Doctors have offered her intensive chemotherapy, but there is only a 10 per cent chance that it would work and a 80 per cent chance it would make her worse.

They’ve also offered Faith, who will be studying fine art at college in September, palliative care but the family are still fundraising for the stem-cell therapy.

Tim said: ‘We went in last Friday.

‘A consultant from London said they did not want to give Faith any more chemo because of the damage it would do to her immune system.

‘All they could do now was offer palliative care.

Her family is now hoping to raise £70,000 for Faith to receive the treatment privately

‘I asked Faith what she wanted to do and she said that she didn’t want more chemo and end up bed-ridden and die.

‘Better to have fun if she’s not got much time left.

‘But we still have this chance of stem cell therapy which is where the fundraising comes in.

‘It is still massively frustrating though that this could all have been diagnosed and more easily dealt with months ago when Faith was still 15.’

Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/bsm9h-saving-faith.