5-year-old’s symptoms mistaken for growing pains and measles before she vomited blood and received rare cancer diagnosis

The mother of a five-year-old girl whose symptoms were mistaken for growing pains and measles before she vomited blood and received a rare cancer diagnosis has said the news still does not “feel real”.

Madeleine Shipp, 28, a stay-at-home mother-of-three who lives in Essex with her 31-year-old partner James, said her daughter Aubrey, now six, started complaining of leg pain in January.

It was thought to be growing pains or a pulled muscle from doing the splits at school, but when she later woke up covered in “spots” and vomited blood, Aubrey was rushed to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

The five-year-old was then transferred to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), where it was confirmed in April that she had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a rare type of cancer which affects the blood and bone marrow.

She has since had chemotherapy and immunotherapy and has missed months of school, but as she approaches the end of her second round of chemotherapy, she cannot wait to gradually return to the classroom and see her friends.

After receiving treatment at GOSH as a baby herself, Madeleine said she will be forever grateful to the hospital for saving her and her daughter.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for GOSH… and Aubrey wouldn’t be here without GOSH,” Madeleine told PA Real Life.

“There’s no way she would have been able to survive without every single team working together – Broomfield’s prompt diagnosis and then GOSH supplying all the treatments she needed.

“If there are any other parents going through this, please reach out for help.”

Before her diagnosis, Madeleine said Aubrey was a “healthy child” and described her as “the one who never got sick”.

The “sassy” six-year-old loves seeing her friends and going to school – and with her favourite subject being science, she hopes to become a scientist when she grows up.

However, in January, Aubrey started complaining of pain in her left leg.

“You take her to the doctors, it’s pain in her leg, she’s five, so she’s growing, right? We just all thought it was growing pains,” Madeleine said.

“She actually did the splits at school, so we also thought she’d pulled a muscle in her leg.”

She was referred to hospital for bloods tests, but Madeleine said it was “too early” for her leukaemia to be detected.

“She wasn’t showing any of the other symptoms,” Madeleine added.

“Lots of children present with losing weight and feeling tired, being ill, but Aubrey just didn’t have that.”

Symptoms of ALL are not always obvious at first, the NHS says, but can include feeling tired or weak, bleeding or bruising easily, looking pale, swollen glands and a swollen tummy.

In April, Aubrey had a distended stomach and her GP said she had a blockage in her bowel and prescribed laxatives.

A few days later, Aubrey woke up covered “head to toe in spots”, with Madeleine believing she had measles – a highly infectious viral illness.

Madeleine called NHS 111 for advice and, while she was on the phone, Aubrey started vomiting blood.

“I just hung up and rang 999,” Madeleine said.

“The paramedics came out and then we were rushed up to Broomfield Hospital.

“We were lucky with Aubrey’s diagnosis, as a haematology doctor was working that day and took one look at her and said, ‘I think I know what the problem is’.”

At the time, Madeleine was pregnant with her third child, and she was asked to call Aubrey’s father, Sammy Brock, to join her at the hospital.

Madeleine said she “didn’t think anything of it” at first, but when she and Sammy were called into another room, she knew it was “bad news”.

“They said, ‘I’m really sorry, but she’s got cancer, it’s looking like leukaemia’,” Madeleine said.

“They said, ‘We can cure your daughter, but we need to get these infections under control, and we need to transfer her to GOSH because she’ll have the best chance there’.

“I was very sad, very confused, and I started crying and shouting.”

Madeleine said Aubrey was “so poorly and so vulnerable” and needed a blood transfusion, antibiotics and multiple cannulas inserted, but she was a “real trooper”.

As her condition worsened, she was intubated and sedated, before being taken to GOSH by ambulance – and Madeleine said she was “terrified” her daughter would not make it.

“The whole time I’m thinking, ‘Just hold on till we get there. Just wait till we get there. Please, just don’t go whilst we’re in an ambulance’,” she said.

“I can’t thank that team enough. They were all brilliant.”

After Aubrey was admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at GOSH and had a bone marrow biopsy, her leukaemia diagnosis was confirmed, specifically B cell ALL.

Madeleine said Aubrey was “riddled” with infections, meaning she could not start treatment straight away, but the nurses at GOSH sang her Disney songs and plaited her hair to keep her spirits lifted.

The family were supported by the Play team as well, who arranged for Aubrey to play Pokemon hunting games along the corridors, and Madeleine was able to stay in GOSH’s family accommodation.

“I don’t think I would have coped as well as I did if it wasn’t for the support up there,” she said.

Aubrey began chemotherapy around a week after her admission to GOSH, which caused her to lose her hair but, aside from complications such as fluid on her lungs, she started responding well to treatment.

She then underwent immunotherapy, which uses the immune system to fight cancer, and was able to return home in May.

Aubrey is approaching the end of her second round of chemo and will soon move on to maintenance treatment, which will last for a year and a half.

She was in the first months of Year 1 when she was diagnosed, and missed a huge part of her first year of school, but she cannot wait to go back.

Madeleine said: “We took her to see her Year 2 teacher, and she cried to him, saying, ‘I want to come back now’.

“She loves it, she thrives off school. She’s got all of her friends there and she’s very engaged in lessons.”

Madeleine was treated at GOSH when she was a few months old – although she cannot remember her diagnosis – and said she “wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for GOSH”.

She is determined to raise more awareness of ALL and the “brilliant” teams at GOSH, as they helped to save Aubrey’s life too, and she wants other parents to know “they’re not alone”.

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel real,” Madeleine said.

“You don’t think it’s going to happen to you, you don’t think it’s going to happen to your family, you don’t think it’s going to happen to your kids – but it does and it just catches you off guard.

“We are very lucky that we have the NHS in the UK, and we are very lucky that we’ve got hospitals like GOSH that support families as much as they support children.”

Sammy added: “To see Aubrey getting ready to start Year 2 and reunite with her school friends is incredible after everything she’s been through.

“GOSH has been a lifeline for us. The care from the doctors and nurses, and the way the Play team kept her smiling even during the hardest days, is something we’ll never forget.”

To support GOSH Charity’s Build It. Beat It. appeal, which is raising money for a new children’s cancer centre, visit: gosh.org/the-childrens-cancer-centre.