THE parents of a two-year-old girl have been left heartbroken after discovering the truth behind their daughter’s ear infection and now she has just days to live.
Florence Prideaux-Godwin was a seemingly happy and healthy toddler who looked to be suffering from a severe ear infection last May.
Tragically, tests have since confirmed that the tot’s painful earache was caused by an untreatable cancer.
The family from Ilfracombe experienced their child’s shocking diagnosis of stage three rhabdomyosarcoma.
Doctors tried to treat the rare type of soft tissue cancer with chemotherapy and radiotherapy but earlier this month a scan confirmed the worst.
Her parents, Dan Godwin, 40, and Rebecca Prideaux, 32, received the news that a tumour in the two-year-old’s ear had spread to her brain.
They’ve been told to make as many memories as they can together with the cancer believed to be untreatable.
With medical approval, the parents who have a five-year-old daughter and twin three-year-old boys have arranged a trip to Butlins, Minehead.
Dan, a dad-of-five, said: “She is starting to get a bit shaky and lose her balance a little bit now and again, but she is still laughing, smiling and playing. Our plan is to spend as much time as possible with her.”
Florence was born two months premature and spent the first two months of her life in hospital.
However, since then she has enjoyed a healthy and happy life up until developing earache last May.
Dan recalled: “We noticed she had a temperature and she was playing with her ears. We took her to A&E at North Devon District Hospital and it was confirmed she had an ear infection. She was prescribed antibiotics and we came away happy.”
A few days later, the parents noticed Florence playing with her ears again.
She pulled out something that Dan could “only describe as looking like a skin tag” and rushed her straight back to A&E.
After his daughter was prescribed stronger antibiotics, the pair were happy to return home.
But a few days later, Rebecca noticed her child’s face looking “different” as her left side “started drooping” like she had suffered a “stroke.
Returning to A&E, Florence was transferred to an ENT specialist at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital where a procedure was carried out to drain most of the fluid.
Polyps found in her ear were sent off for testing.
A week later she returned home but a day later she became unwell again and the decision was made to drain the remaining fluid from her ear. At the beginning of June she was able to go home and seemed fine until the end of the month when her health deteriorated.
Dan said: “We were back at the RD&E and doctors said to us, ‘to be honest, it’s a mystery’, as they weren’t sure what was going on. The next day, on July 1, the results from the polyps in her ear came back as cancerous.
“We were told she had a tumour in her left ear. Initially they thought it had spread to one of her lymph nodes, but then we were told that wasn’t the case. Pretty much straight away she was started on chemotherapy.”
The treatment plan for Florence was nine courses of chemotherapy lasting around three weeks each. She received alternating cycles of standard and then a trial chemotherapy.
Scans in September showed the treatment was working and the tumour was shrinking. In October, she spent eight weeks at the University College Hospital in London for proton beam therapy, a type of radiotherapy.
Florence finished her last course of chemotherapy at the beginning of January and was given another progress scan. However, this time it was not good news.
Dan, who has remained at home with their other children while Rebecca has stayed by Florence’s bedside in hospital, said: “We had been very positive and upbeat as she had done really well and had been brilliant throughout it all.
“Florence had the obvious side effects of chemotherapy such as losing her hair and she was a bit up and down, but on the whole she was amazing and was still playing and laughing.
“To look at her, apart from not having hair, you would not have been able to tell anything was wrong with her. But then we were told the cancer had spread from her left ear to the back of her brain and that her cancer was now incurable.
“Initially we were told there were a couple of options such as chemotherapy to prolong her life a little bit. Then a week later, last Thursday, we had another meeting with doctors and they said they were unable to do anything else for her and that she had days or up to weeks to live. I can’t describe how it felt being told that news. It was probably one of the lowest low points of my life.”
Florence is now back home with her family and is still full of smiles as usual.
Dan said: “We have been told to spend as much time as we can with her making memories. We have been to look at children’s hospice Little Bridge House in Fremington where we will spend a few days the week after our visit to Butlins.
“We usually go there every May for our childrens’ birthdays. Our team of doctors have pre-warned Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton about Florence in case we need to go there while we are away.”
They are being helped to enjoy precious last moments with Florence thanks to an online fundraiser that has been set up by family friend Callie Courtney Baxendale. It has so far raised just over £7,000.
Florence is said to be still happy and enjoying playing, but her little body is now showing signs of the effects of her cancer. The online fundraiser set up for the family is hoped to help them do more fun things with Florence while she is able to.
It is the second fundraiser that has been organised for them. The first, which raised just over £2,000, helped them financially after having to stop work to care for Florence.
Dan said: “When we found out the news that Florence was terminal, another fundraiser was set up to help us make as many memories as possible. The support we have had is unbelievable. We have been blown away by it.
“We would also like to thank the staff at both Barnstaple and Exeter hospitals; they have been fantastic, as have the community nurses.”
What is Rhabdomyosarcoma?
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare form of soft tissue cancer that is most common in children under 10-years-old.
It is more common in boys than girls with more children surviving childhood cancer than ever before.
The type of tumour is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children.
They can develop from muscle or fibrous tissue and can grow in any part of the body.
Symptoms include:
Typically, it is diagnosed by testing the exact size of the tumour and whether it has spread to other parts of the body.
Treatment can vary but could include chemotherapy, surgery or radiotherapy.
Source: NHS
