❤️🦸‍♀️⭐️Today the Bringing Back A Smile Charity surprised Orlah-May and her family with a weekend break on the 21st October to Daisy’s Den, Primrose Valley. It’s just what the family needed after going through very difficult times at the moment. Here is what mum Laura Jane New told us about the youngster’s battle❤️🦸‍♀️⭐️

Orlah-Mae age 7, Orlah was taking part in sports day at her school on July 19th this year and suffered with a seizure. She was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham and diagnosed with epilepsy, as part of the diagnosis the doctors carried out an MRI scan of her head and unfortunately found a brain tumour. Orlah was then transferred to The Great North Children’s Hospital the next day and her care was taken over by the oncology and neurosurgeon team at the RVI.

Orlah went to the theatre for 4 hours and had biopsies taken from her tumour, 10 weeks later, confirmation after the biopsies went to two further hospitals in London for a definite diagnosis. Orlah was diagnosed with a low-grade glioma, called dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumour (DNET) a slow-growing brain tumour which quite possibly due to its size of 3x4cm and her age has been there all of her life.

Orlah has had several appointments and checkups since including another scan in which her tumour is stable and has shown no growth. Orlah seen the neurosurgeon team this week and they have decided the best management is to do surgery and remove as much of the growth as possible, total resection is not possible as it’s in a difficult-to-reach part of the brain and it has invaded into the healthy tissue of her brain. Unfortunately, Orlah will live with this condition for the rest of her life. Orlah will be having her first operation in January of 2023.
www.bringingbackasmile.co.uk