Maddie's Story #43km Donate Fundraise Maddison's mum Monique noticed she wasn’t her usual happy two-year-old self. About a week and more doctors’ visits they found themselves in Emergency where Monique's instincts proved right. Eventually blood tests revealed a problem, though there was still confusion about exactly what that problem was. It was a radiographer who discovered a tumour behind Maddie’s abdomen. We were made aware that we were at war with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. Monique, Maddie's mum The tumour was behind Maddie’s abdomen and wrapped around various organs, including her liver and kidney, and attached to her aorta, very close to her spine. It was described to the family as being like one large mass of tentacles squeezing its way into all the spaces between her organs. It was also showing up in Maddie’s bone marrow in her hip and shoulders. What followed was a gruelling regime of aggressive chemotherapy, stem cell harvesting, surgery, radiotherapy and complicated further by pneumonia (which cost her three weeks in intensive care on life support) and the development aHus blood disorder (which required multiple blood transfusions). Maddie was a Run2Cure Neuroblastoma Superhero in 2018 and her neuroblastoma journey, including a lovely video of Maddie and her mum at Run2Cure 2019, is available in our families area. She is now five years old. Maddie is a child who just makes the most of every moment, stopping to smell the roses, talk to a stranger, splash in muddy puddles. So I wanted her to be kilometre 43 as a reminder for me to enjoy the moment and get me to the finish line. Natalie #44kmfor44kids We have experienced too many complications and setbacks with Maddie’s treatment to mention here and after all of this we are left with no promises that the disease won’t return, but we will continue to monitor her closely and take things one day at a time. Monique, Maddie's mum Manage Cookie Preferences