Beatriz was diagnosed with Globlastoma stage IV in March 2019 at the age of 13 and died in May 2019.
In her short life she developed the skill of making others smile – she was the one who would make a joke to cheer another’s day. She was the one who would play the fool so others could laugh. She loved to bake for her friends, to curl up with a blanket and watch a movie and to dance and do gymnastics. She wanted to be a vet and would study books on animal anatomy to prepare herself for university. The journey through her illness was a difficult one for her and for us her family.
In February 2019 Beatriz began to feel unwell,with fatigue,muscle pain and back pain. As these symptoms worsened she began to limp and couldn’t flex her neck. Repeated visits to the doctor couldn’t find a problem, she was then seen by the amazing and experienced paediatric nurse at the surgery who after examining her for more than 30 minutes called a doctor to get her referred her for X-rays and blood tests. This finally gave me a bit of peace of mind.
Due to Beatriz's anxiety and aichmophobia or needles phobia, have her to do the blood test was an impossible mission. However, we managed to convince her to have the X-ray. This was followed by further visits to the hospital as Beatriz symptoms and pain increased which lead to an appointment for an MRI. Throughout this Beatriz was determined, she wanted life to continue as normal with painkillers she managed a further day at school but was in too much pain to keep going.Gradually she lost feeling in her legs. Following her MRI I could tell from the “professionals” body language that something was seriously wrong. She told us that they had seen a swelling on Beatriz’s spine,asked us to go to A&E to see the paediatric consultant. He told us that he had arranged for Beatriz to be admitted to GOSH in Central London and that she would be transferred there in an ambulance. We arrived at GOSH at 11:15pm. On the next day because of her fear of needles Beatriz was put to sleep so they could to a contrast MRI. On the same day we had the shocking news that she had a tumour on her spinal cord and that this tumour should be removed as soon as possible. All the arrangements were made, even an anxiety and fear psychologist specialist was located to help Beatriz to go through this scary and risky surgery that would happen on Monday 11th March. By Saturday, before the surgery had happened, Beatriz had lost all the movement in her legs and could no longer could get up or sit up.
The surgery took nearly 10 hours to be concluded. This was an unpleasant experience to us and to our girl. I would say it the most horrifying, and agonizing 10 hours of our lives. Beatriz recovery well from the surgery with the help of the amazing team of doctors, nurses and dogs therapists. 10 days waiting for the results of the biopsy to come made us all very anxious. Bravely Beatriz came in her wheelchair to meet the team that would give us the devastating news that we were all afraid to hear. On the 27th of March she was transferred to the UCLH to start radio and chemotherapy. Beatriz was terrified about the side effect – loosing her hair and feeling sick but still continued. For a few days Beatriz went down from the ward each day for her radiotherapy but her pain began to increase again and she could no longer lie still for the treatment to be carried out. Another MRI was performed and gave the devastating news that the tumour had regrown.A month from her surgery it was back filling the whole of the surgical cavity. This aggressive tumour had continued to grow despite being targeted by both chemo and radiotherapy. The decision was made to stop radiotherapy as it was putting Beatriz in unbearable pain but the chemotherapy was continued. The doctors discussed her case with colleagues in other centres and advice was sought from hospitals in France but at this time there was nothing that could be done by doctors to save our precious girl...
Almost coming to an end and no time to travel the world with her best friend Laura or to become a vet, Beatriz, determined to the end, managed to persuade us that "Yes" you can have a dog, we will look after it for you...
On 16 May Beatriz was transferred to Shooting Stars Hospice. She died in her sleep, peacefully, on Saturday 18 of May 2019 surrounded by us.
On the next Saturday 25th of May 2019 many relatives and friends joined us in a chapel in Central London to say goodbye to our beautiful girl. In a peaceful and beautiful service, we sang her favourite song “I am a child of God “and others, shared sweet memories moments of her life and said goodbye to her with lot of cakes and cookies and beautiful Sunflowers as she wished.
Afrodite Martins
(Mum)