Mum of brave cancer toddler who sang Frozen with nurses in heartwarming video tells of plight to save her little girl
Lynsey McColl, 27, has just four months to raise funds to get her daughter to the US for potentially life-saving treatment not available on NHS
THE mum of a sick toddler who stole the country’s hearts with a video of her singing Frozen hit Let It Go in hospital has revealed her desperate plight to save her daughter.
Heartwarming footage of Millie McColl, then just three, singing the Disney tune with nurses in Glasgow won the admiration of thousands last year.
The plucky little girl belted out the words to the song despite being in the midst of a gruelling treatment cycle to cure a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
Now her 'immensely proud' mum Lynsey, who is a nurse herself, has spoken publicly for the first time about the ordeal of watching her child go through the treatment.
She said: “The last 14 months we have watched Millie go through such gruelling treatments and countless operations, feeling every bit of upset, pain and frustration along with her.
“It has been the hardest time of our lives but also the proudest.
“Millie's strength throughout has been incredible.”
RELATED STORIES
Lynsey, 27, was relieved earlier this year to hear that her daughter’s cancer was in remission.
But the neonatal nursery nurse revealed the family’s ordeal wasn’t over.
She is now engaged in a last ditch battle to get her daughter, now four, to the US in time for an experimental treatment that could save her life.
The type of cancer Millie suffers from, called Neuroblastoma, has a shockingly high rate of relapse in children.
Up to 80 per cent of kids given the all clear see the disease return within two years and doctors describe survival rates after relapse as “poor”.
Lynsey said: “It’s terrified us right from the beginning – knowing that we could put her through all this gruelling treatment and she could be given the all-clear only to be put right back to the start again.
“It’s really, really scary.”
But despite this, crucial preventative treatment to slash the chances of the disease returning isn’t available on the NHS.
This has left the family scrambling to scrape together £30,000 within just four months to fly to the US – after which plucky little Millie will no longer be eligible for the treatment.
Lynsey said: “There are so many families like ourselves that are having to fundraise to go and get potentially life-saving treatment abroad.
“I think when something’s proven to be working it should surely become available.
Nevertheless, the devoted mum from Falkirk has been left with the terrible choice of either stumping up the cash or facing the daunting odds.
Little Millie has already taken on incredible odds to get this far.
She beat the disease back into remission after it reached the dreaded Stage 4 – where it spreads to distant lymph nodes, tissue, bones, bone marrow and/or other organs.
And she defied a survival rate of only 43 per cent in kids diagnosed between the ages of one and four.
But for Lynsey – who lives with hubby Dean, 33, and sons Ryan, 9, and Aidan, 7 – the latest odds are simply too tall to comprehend.
She said: “We just can't imagine our lives without her and we shouldn't have to.
“She has gotten this far and fought so hard – we have to give her every chance possible of beating this awful disease.
“Getting Millie to America for preventative treatment could give her that chance and then we can live in hope that we will see our little princess grow up.”
The family have set up a page on Just Giving to try and raise the money – but time is fast running out.
Click to donate.