Meet Matthew and his niece Mylah
We are proud to be official partners of Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity , where we aim to help raise as much money as we can to help support all the wonderful work they do.
We spoke to our, Revenue Protection and Security Manager, Matthew, on how Birmingham Children’s Hospital has played such a big part in his life by supporting and caring for his niece Mylah.
Read Matthew and Mylah’s story
“My story is all about my brave young niece, Mylah, and how Birmingham Children’s Hospital has supported me and my family throughout this time.
It all started this summer when my niece Mylah had been ill with stomach pains. But on a camping trip, we noticed it got worse. Our concerns saw us immediately take Mylah to the doctors where she was urgently sent to Russell’s Hall Hospital in Dudley. After examining her they officially diagnosed Mylah with Wilms Tumour - which is essentially cancer of the kidney.
Soon after, Mylah was sent to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where they again confirmed that the diagnosis was Wilms Tumour. However, after further examination, they told us that the tumour had spread up her veins and bordered the line of her heart, which meant that an open-heart surgery had to be performed - because if the tumour enters her heart her heart could stop.
The surgery was scheduled five days later, but in the meantime, Mylah received her first set of chemotherapy the day after the diagnosis at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Although we were worried, we knew it had to be done and that Mylah was in good hands. We were relieved when the surgery was a success and five days later, we were informed that Mylah had a 95% chance of everything being okay.
But the care didn’t stop there. Mylah continued to have a further 28 weeks of chemotherapy and we are delighted to say that she is doing just fine.
I would just like to finish and say a big thank you to all the staff over at Birmingham Children’s Hospital who have helped my family immensely. Their care, thoroughness and support were fantastic. The one-on-one care in ICU, the round the clock 24-hour care and the effort they make to boost morale for the children in and out of the beds is amazing. I would ask anyone to help support Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity to do it because what they do is life-changing and what you donate all helps to save a life.”
If you would like to donate to Birmingham Children’s Hospital and help support children like Mylah, you can do so below.