From May to July Katy spent the majority of her time in the hospital facing multiple infections as a result of the treatment breaking down everything in her system. While going through treatment her father took seriously unwell and he unfortunately lost his life unknowingly to Pancreatic cancer, this was another battle she fought head on showing her strength and resilience.

In August Katy became septic spending time in PICU, it was found the source was her Hickman line which suddenly burst while receiving a blood transfusion. After her line was removed she then had it replaced while taking on her next hurdle which was the surgery to have her femur removed and replaced with a titanium bone, this surgery lasted 13 hours. After her surgery she then had the challenge of learning to walk again, going through weeks of physio and pain management as a result of some nerve damage which left her with a drop foot.

Two weeks after her surgery it was back to chemo which again made her extremely sick, again resulting in her going into PICU with sepsis. This time it was a difficult journey trying to find the source of the sepsis. During her time in PICU Katy developed Nutropenic Toxic Colitis and her stomach started to swell causing her extreme pain, she was put nil by mouth for a few weeks in the hope it would return to normal but it continued to cause more problems affecting her breathing and her platelets which would barely stay above 7. Tests and scans failed to show a cause, Katy had to be heavily sedated all while doctors were on call ready to intervene if required. Once doctors were able to control her platelets enough for them to feel comfortable taking her to surgery they went in to find out what was going on, the result of this was she had to have part of her colon removed and a stoma created.

After this surgery everyone was hopeful this would be a resolution to everything, unfortunately it was not the case, because Katy again became septic in her line this was once again removed and a PICC line placed in her arm.

After PICU Katy was allowed home briefly on Christmas eve for a few days before returning to hospital for intense physio, from spending the 9 weeks in PICU she again had to learn to walk and build up her strength. She did this in record time being discharged in only two weeks, shocking many in her care team of her quick turn around. From her check up scan in January we hoped to be getting the all clear but we were told that the 2 tumors on her pelvis looked brighter than the last scan. The team still did not think they were active and said they would scan her again in 3 months time.

Katy spent January to March able to get back to a slight resemblance of her old life, able to see her friends and go out, in March she began complaining of pain in her right hip this caused concern and she was scanned earlier than planned. From these scans we were again given the devastating news that Katy's cancer had returned in her pelvis, showing multiple mets, unfortunately because of how unwell the chemo had made her there was nothing more they could do for her. We had planned out a bucket list of things to do with Katy including attending prom with her best friend brought a year forward kindly by her school and visiting Lego Land along with a number of other plans to make as many memories in the time she had left.

Katy never got to attend either of these as she quickly lost her battle on April 29th at 15 years old, her cancer was so aggressive it had again spread fast causing a blood clot that travelled to her heart, she passed suddenly in the morning at home.

Katy fought the majority of her life to be in this world from being born premature, to having surgery at a young age for a Cholesteatoma resulting in her being deaf in her left ear and when she was in primary school she was diagnosed with a developmental delay.

Katy was the youngest of 8 sisters who were all astounded by her strength, determination and resilience throughout her journey, she will forever be our hero and inspiration. Throughout her treatments she rarely complained becoming a favourite of the hospital staff, losing her hair was a large hurdle for Katy but her true style she soldiered on and rocked the headscarves and her wig.

Katy loved her phone, making TikToks with her sister Chloe and Alexis, going on shopping and coffee trips with her mum Shelly and sisters Sharna and Sophie, Costa and Starbucks being her absolute favourites. Along with coffee she loved her food, the strong favourites were takeaways but topping all of that were crisps.

Family was a massive part of Katy’s world, having so many siblings who went on to have children, she loved spending time with her nieces and nephews who all doted on their Auntie Katy. To the family Katy will always be remembered by her nickname Katy cupcake, a name fondly given to her by her mum.

She was kind hearted, sassy, strong willed and had an amazing personality, Katy had many passions her main one being her friends, she enjoyed spending the majority of her time with her best friend Kirsty who was by her side throughout her whole journey. Another big passion of Katy’s was Lego; she would spend hours working on many of her Lego sets, something that kept her going while she was unable to socialise with others during treatment.

Sharing Katy’s story shows the suffering and pain so many children and families face, the lack of change in treatments for Ewing sarcoma and other bone cancers is shocking. Although they are seen as rare they are so aggressive and strip so much away from children who have to fight their way through the barbaric treatments just for them to have a slight hope of beating their cancer. Unfortunately with Ewing sarcoma the mortality rate is absolutely shocking meaning a large number of children will lose their fight.

We want to fight to change the outcome for those children, giving them better hope and kinder treatments while they are going through such a difficult diagnosis. There are so many sides to cancer that people aren’t aware of, thinking it's as simple as just getting treatment but that is not the case, there are so many factors and problems that children and families will face while trying to navigate the terrifying journey. As part of Katy’s legacy we want to try and shine a light on these issues and work on finding a better path for others.

Along with her family Katy’s teachers and school friends are taking part in various activities to raise money for bone cancer, one of the first ways they took to doing this was her teachers took part in the race for life raising over £5000 in Katy’s memory. Every year they have decided to have a pink and blue day, two of her favourite colours, held on the 29th of April where they will ask for donations. To keep Katy's memory alive the school also created an award that will be given for showing resilience at every awards ceremony, this year the award was given to Katy collected by her best friend.