Five-year-old Claregalway girl Lily-Mae Morrison, who was diagnosed with a rare children’s cancer in 2012, is now in remission, her parents have said.
"We are thrilled to be able to share the news that our beautiful Tiny Dancer is in remission", said Judith Sibley and Leighton Morrison, referring to the charity single Tiny Dancer released last Christmas.
"This is the best possible news we could ever have hoped for. We would like to sincerely thank the doctors in Crumlin, the radiologists in London and the researchers who created the anti-body trial," they said in a statement on their Facebook page.
They said because there was such a high risk of Lily-Mae relapsing, they have decided to enrol Lily-Mae on a phase 2 clinical trial in Michigan, America.
“It means that Lily-Mae will travel to America every three months for the next two years to collect drugs called DFMO and have scans. The results of the DFMO trial have been excellent so far and it has no significant side-effects.”
They described the last 16 months as “an absolute nightmare”, but “the love shown to our little girl has been absolutely overwhelming.”
Lily-Mae was diagnosed on June 1st, 2012 with neuroblastoma, a rare and extremely aggressive childhood cancer of the nervous system. Shortly afterwards, the girl's uncle, Paul Hayes, began a fundraising campaign for his niece, culminating in the release of the Elton John cover Tiny Dancer.
