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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Robin McKie Science editor

A young girl’s legacy: pioneering blood test can help treat rare childhood cancer

The Wakeling family when their eldest daughter Alice, front centre, was in remission from rhabdomyosarcoma.
The Wakeling family when their eldest daughter Alice, front centre, was in remission from rhabdomyosarcoma. Photograph: Family handout

Alice Wakeling was three when a lump began to grow on her neck. Doctors were initially puzzled but, after six weeks of tests, consultants gave her parents, David and Sara, the devastating news. Alice had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer that develops in muscle or fibrous tissue.

For the next four years, Alice went through gruelling bouts of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. For a brief period, it looked as if she was free from her cancer. But it returned, and Alice died in October 2019. She was seven.

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