The Girl Who Never Stopped Smiling

Fighting for cancer all her life, Always so brave and so happy, A Funeral fit for a princess

- Alice McIntyre

Stretching out my arms, I cheered as my 13-monthold daughter Lucy took her first, wobbly steps. She had a big grin on her face – she’d always been a real smiler.

So it was unusual, just two days later, when she seemed unhappy. She was pale, weak, and wanted endless cuddles.

When she started being sick, I took her to see our doctor. ‘It’s a virus,’ he said. ‘She’ll soon be better.’

But she wasn’t. Days on, a second doctor suggested meningitis, so we rushed to Burton Hospital, where Lucy was incubated and sent to Leicester Royal Infirmary.

There, after she’d had tests, we got a different – but just as terrifying – diagnosis. ‘I’m afraid Lucy has leukaemia,’ the doctor said.

We were devastated.

Cheeky!

Lucy started chemotherapy at once.

She was too little to understand, but her cheeky smile never vanished through four months of gruelling treatment.

When Lucy was 18 months, she went into remission.

She flourished. In time, she started school and loved it.

She was crazy about princesses – adored her siblings – Ella, Owen and Izzy.

I thought our nightmare was over until February 2013, when Lucy was almost 5.

‘I don’t want to go to school,’ she said, white-faced.

The GP referred Lucy to hospital. Tests showed she had a viral infection. She was admitted, given antibiotics.

I had the other kids to look after, so my ex, Lucy’s dad, stayed with her overnight.

The next morning, I woke up to hundreds of missed calls from him.

‘It’s back,’ he said when we spoke.

The words I’d feared.