THE MOTHER of a toddler who is battling a brain tumour is urging Observer readers to dig deep and help her daughter enjoy a ‘holiday of a lifetime’.
Liz Bishop, of Ronkswood, is hoping to raise £5,000 so she can send her brave three-year-old daughter, Lily-mai, on a dream trip to Disney World Resort in Florida later this year.
Lily-mai has had to cope with a series of challenges since she was brought into the world in April 2011 as she was born with dysmorphic facial features.
But her world was turned upside down when she fell and banged her head on July 15 last year.
Liz called 111 thinking it was concussion, but once her daughter arrived at hospital and carried out a scan a brain tumour was found which was the size of a tangerine.
Three days later she underwent an eight-hour operation to remove the tumour, but as it was attached to the brain cortex they could not clear it all out, while a further MRI scan showed another piece also remained.
Liz said: “It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. Our second home has been in the hospital so it has been hard, but you just have to get on with it.
“Lily-mai has been a little star throughout. Most of the time she has got a smile on her face.
“As she has got other difficulties she probably doesn’t know any different, so she just accepts it.”
Lily-mai is currently undergoing intensive chemotherapy to try and shrink the tumour, known as the Medulloblastoma. Liz is now hoping her daughter will pull through and be rewarded with a trip to Disney World.
“We want to go to Florida because if it is our last holiday with her we want to make it special as a family,” she said.
“Her treatment should also be finished by the end of November this year, so if she gets the all-clear the holiday would then become a celebratory reward.
“Disneyland in Florida offers the whole package as you get to see all the Disney characters and see all the animals that are there as well, so it would be a holiday of a lifetime.”
In order to generate the money needed for her family, which also includes her two children, Blake, five, and Chloe and Lily-mai’s father, John, to go on holiday, Liz set up a donation page which has seen them raise more than £2,500.
“When I set it up three months ago, I didn’t think it would get very far,” she added. “So I have been really shocked by how much it has raised.
“I have been quite overwhelmed by how generous people really are and I am really grateful. She has clearly touched a lot of people’s hearts.”
Anyone interested in donating should visit http://www.gofundme.com/gyul2g
