Hailsham girl fights rare and aggressive brain tumour
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Earlier this year Anastasia Ogden was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer known as atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour (ATRT). Her mum Paulina Ogden said: “She was just a happy, healthy little girl until August 26. She’d spent the day running and playing in the park and it wasn’t until we were walking back that she started feeling dizzy and losing her balance. It was a hot day so I wasn’t too alarmed and thought maybe she just hadn’t had enough to drink or had picked up a bug.
“That night she was absolutely fine and the next morning we went to visit my cousin in Seaford. It was whilst we were there that she took another turn, feeling dizzy, tilting her head to the right and getting so wobbly that she looked drunk. I knew something wasn’t right and so took her straight to the Brighton Children’s Hospital.
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Hide Ad“Twenty-four hours later, we were told that she had a brain tumour and that’s when our whole world turned upside-down. We never imagined that our little girl would have cancer, or that she would have something so rare and dangerous.”
Following scans, she underwent surgery and was recovering well, until three days later when she took a turn for the worst and had to be rushed into surgery to remove the tumour. Surgeons managed to remove more than 90 per cent of Anastasia’s tumour, but it took her weeks to recover.
Now the plan is to shrink the rest of the tumour with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sadly, her cancer cells have already spread to other parts of her brain and spine. Her mum, who is working with the charity Brain Tumour Research, wants more parents to be aware of ATRT and know what to look out for which is why she’s sharing Anastasia’s story. Paulina said: “I’m so incredibly proud of Anastasia and how amazing she's doing; she’s just so strong.”
Charlie Allsebrook, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said brain tumours kill more children than leukaemia and any other cancer, yet, historically, just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.