The parents of a six-year-old girl are trying to make as many memories as possible after their daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour. Joules Smith was recently diagnosed with a diffuse midline glioma - an aggressive brain tumour - and is expected to have only nine months to live. were told the devastating news that there were no effective treatments for this type of brain tumour.
The couple, who live in Minster on , had taken Joules to hospital on May 10 after a few days of noticing some slight changes in her balance, eye and head movements, and headaches. Tests at the hospital came back normal and the family was told "everything had come back fine" before being sent home. But, after getting home and seeing Joules' symptoms worsen, they returned to the hospital the following day and insisted on her having a CT scan which, later the same day, revealed she had a mass in her brain.
The Minster Primary School pupil was rushed to London's King's College Hospital. There, she had an MRI scan. "It was that scan which revealed the worst possible news," dad Joe said.
"That it was a diffuse midline glioma, which is as bad as it gets, and is terminal." Young Joules subsequently had a shunt put into her brain to help ease the pressure in her head which, her heartbroken dad says, "seems to be helping". After a week at King's, the family returned home and was referred to urrey, where she is now undergoing radiotherapy to help ease her symptoms.
She started radiotherapy last.
