Gracie’s coming along in leaps and bounds
THE FAMILY of an ‘amazing’ eight-year-old leukaemia patient who has now returned to school want to thank the Guernsey community and charities for their generosity.
On Boxing Day last year Gracie Whitwam started to show symptoms of what would be identified as the adult version of acute myeloid leukemia.
Early diagnosis put down partly to ‘mother’s intuition’ meant treatment started the day her results came back on 10 January.
In July, after six months of intense chemotherapy and treatment in Southampton, Gracie was found to be in complete remission.
Her parents, Stephi and Martin Whitwam, said that without the support of the island the journey would have been a much harder one.
‘The hardest part as a parent was consenting to all this treatment straight away. Gracie’s little brother Oliver and I would come up every weekend in that time.
‘The Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation heard about what was happening and offered us one of their flats in Southampton to stay in while Gracie was getting treatment. We would have all been crammed in one hospital room if it wasn’t for them, we wanted to be able to have family time and without them we would’ve been stuffed, really,’ said Mr Whitwam.
During her stay at Southampton Children’s Hospital, Gracie was noticeable for her positive attitude.
‘She was the leader. She would bring all of the quiet characters out of their shells. We went through every type of emotion but she generally stayed upbeat throughout, she would even play tricks on the nurses hiding in the laundry,’ said Mrs Whitwam.
Gracie underwent four rounds of chemotherapy in a relatively short space of time because of her diagnosis with the adult version of the blood cancer.
‘Gracie doesn’t do things by halves,’ she said.
In six months Gracie pulled through five spates of infection and regular doses of medicine to counteract the side effects of her intense treatment.
‘At one point she had over 20 stab wounds from them not being able to find a vein. That was really tough,’ said Mr Whitwam.
A new drug was also tested out on Gracie for a time during treatment which they hope will help other children in the future.
Each round of chemotherapy, blood test, research drug or other significant event in the hospital was marked by the nurses giving out glass beads to collect on a string. Gracie now proudly has several metres of the beads.
‘We want to display them on a coffee table type thing,’ said Mrs Whitwam.
On 23 July, Gracie achieved the goal she had been looking forward to and gave the opening speech as narrator/red guard in the S.W.A.T.S production of Beauty and the Beast in the island.
Money donated by islanders on a charity fundraising page has also helped to do the necessary renovations to the family home to make it safe for Gracie to return. The Society For Cancer Relief also paid for flights so that Oliver could come and visit his sister.
‘We’d also like to thank Linzi Hutchins, Martin’s sister Rachel Tyson, Super Shoes and Project Linus as well as the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation,’ said Mrs Whitwam.
‘We’ve made a lot of friends in the hospital from the UK and they didn’t have the support that we’ve had from home,’ said Mr Whitwam.
Despite being able to attend a special hospital school, Gracie was looking forward to returning to see her friends and teachers at St Martin’s Primary School, where she will begin phasing in her attendance this year.
Gracie will now have to have regular tests until she reaches 18 to monitor her health. As yet, Gracie is unsure whether she wants to become a nurse, teacher or scientist.
