Parents Anna Chattaway and Dom Wilde were told six times that their one-year-old daughter Florence was constipated, despite her belly ballooning over three weeks. In November 2024, Florence was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops from cells left behind from a baby's development in the womb. The tumour weighed 2kg, while Florence weighed just 13kg, making up nearly 15% of her body weight.
Missed diagnosis over three weeks
Anna, a clinical psychologist from Stourbridge, said the family was back and forth with their daughter to their local GP during a six-week period before the diagnosis. 'Florence was diagnosed a month after her first birthday,' she said. 'There was a period of six weeks beforehand where she was poorly with one thing or another. She picked up infections, she had hand foot and mouth, she had antibiotics but remained off for a while.'
When Florence's tummy began to swell, doctors told the parents she was constipated. 'We were told she was constipated at the GP,' Anna explained. 'For three weeks I had to force-feed her laxatives which was horrendous.' Florence was crying in pain and unable to sleep on her own, so Anna had to cradle her upright at night to help her rest.
'When her stomach hadn't gone down, doctors gave her more laxatives, but it was getting bigger,' Anna said. 'She wasn't right and the laxatives weren't helping so we had to keep pushing the doctors.' On one occasion, a GP said she was fine and 'let's address the elephant in the room, we don't think it's cancer'.
Tumour discovered after blood test
The parents went to the doctor again, accompanied by Anna's mother, who pushed for a blood test. 'Her bloods were heightened and they referred us to the PAU (paediatric assessment unit) immediately,' Anna said. 'We had another doctor who felt her stomach. As soon as he felt her tummy he said he didn't think it was poo, there were lumps and bumps.'
When the tumour was discovered, it was 30cm, which Anna described as heart-breaking. 'She's only small so that took up quite a lot of her.' Florence underwent surgery at Birmingham Children's Hospital on November 26, 2024, and started emergency chemotherapy the very next day.
'She had three months of induction chemotherapy to try and shrink the tumour. They thought the disease was in one place, in her stomach, they assumed it was localised,' Anna said. However, further scans in January 2025 revealed Florence had metastatic, or stage 4 cancer, which happens when cells break away from the main tumour. In this case, the disease spread to her spine.
Anger and regret over delayed diagnosis
'We look back now, how did we think she was constipated because her stomach was massive?' Anna said. 'It grew rapidly in a few weeks, that's why we have so much anger because if someone would have seen her the first time we went to the GP we could've caught this sooner.'
She had up to 95% of the tumour removed from her spine in March 2025, before beginning her first rounds of high-dose chemo just three weeks later. Florence began five cycles of immunotherapy in October that year, before her parents were eventually told the tumour had stopped progressing in April 2026.
'All throughout we were told she was doing great,' Anna said. 'Every admission she was full of life throughout it, she was just incredible. We've met families along the way who have been pushed back from GP's and doctors more than what Florence's has. For us, I do think if she was diagnosed sooner it might have not been that large. We sat in that headspace for many months and it was horrifying. There was a lot of anger there.'
Fundraising for anti-relapse treatment
The family is now fundraising £100,000 to pay for anti-relapse treatment (DFMO) no longer offered by the NHS, after the treatment was withdrawn by the manufacturer from standard UK access routes, forcing people to pay for it out of their own pocket.
'Florence has finished the gold standard NHS treatment, after that you can either watch and wait to see if the cancer comes back, or other families chose to do a relapse prevention treatment, but they aren't NHS protocol,' Anna said. 'We decided we wanted her to have a treatment called DFMO. It came to the UK in 2024 and then it was withdrawn in April, a week before she became eligible to start.'
Florence has beaten the 50% survival odds of the childhood cancer. 'She's been doing incredibly, she's such a happy little girl. Life is good at home,' Anna said. The family's GoFundMe page has already raised £61,000 at the time of publishing.
