Two youngsters among the first in the UK to be given a radical new cancer treatment are hopeful for the future after early signs showed it had reduced the size of their tumours.
Izzy Smith, 19, and Pixie Belle Sykes, 9, have both travelled hundreds of miles to be part of the potentially life-saving trial, being co-ordinated at the Great North Children's Hospital. Izzy, from Birmingham, was the first person in the country to be part of the trial - called FIREFLY - which involves simply taking tablets on a weekly basis which target faulty messages from the body's "control system".
Both girls were recruited to the trial after previous treatments like surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy failed to stop their tumours growing or returning. Pixie, just 9 and from near Manchester, had been left bedbound by the combination of her illness and the treatment for it - but now after being on the trial since January has even been able to return to regular dancing and drama classes.
