Lily-Eva's Story
Meet Lily-Eva
Lily-Eva was an incredibly speical young girl.
She was funny,kind,creative, a little bit stubborn and completely herself! She had the biggest personality, the softest heart and a way of making people laugh without even trying.
She loved animals with her whole heart. They weren't simply something she liked but rather a huge part of who she was.Horses,sheep, dogs - All animals could make her face light up.
Animals brought Lily-Eva so much happiness, comfort and enjoyment. If there was a choice between being anywhere else or being muddy,outdoors, surrounded by animals, there was never really any competition. That was her world, with her animals, she absolutely adored it.
Lily-Eva was also incredibly creative. She loved making things, drawing and crafting. She could take something ordinary and turn it into something completely her own. Her imagination was special and creating things was part of who she was.
The creative side of her became even more important when hospital became such a huge part of her life. Crafting, activities and little projects gave her something to focus on during long admissions, treatments and endless waiting. They gave her moments where she could be Lily-Eva, rather than a child having cancer treatment.
The day everything changed
On the 8th September 2024, Lily-Eva's 9th birthday, our lives changed forever.
Lily-Eva woke on her 9th birthday with a huge amount of abdominal pain. I ( Lily-Eva's mummy) asked her to lift her top and point to exactly where it was hurting. I will never forget what I saw. My little girls stomach was hugely swollen on one side. I knew in that moment that something was seriously wrong. My mind went to so many places and I knew she needed medical attention fast. With the waiting times in A&E I was reluctant to take her there. Instead I knew our local walk in clinic would see her immediately and be able to fast track treatment for her. So that is where we headed. Within 5 minutes of being there we were sent straight to our locals children's ward.
Within half an hour of being there I was taken to one side, away from Lily-Eva and told that they believe she may have cancer. A day that should have been filled with birthday excitement quickly became tests, scans and fear.
Lily-Eva didn't know yet. Instead I was told to take her home for the night. Let her enjoy her birthday cake and ' One more night of normal.'
One final night where she could simply be a little girl celebrating the rest of her birthday before she too, would have to learn that her whole world was about to change.
And then treatment began.
Eleven months of treatment
Life became chemotherapy, hospital admission, blood tests, scans , surgeries and waiting.
So much waiting.
Waiting for results. Waiting for treatment. Waiting to find out if it was working. Waiting for the day we could finally put cancer behind us.
Lily-Eva went through so much during treatment. Every single side effect you can get from chemo, she got it. She underwent so many surgeries from picc line and port placements to ovary removal and major surgery to remove her kidney and the enormous tumour growing from it.
She spent weeks in London for radiotherapy treatment before returning home to continue chemotherapy.
She went through more in those 11 months than any child should ever have to face.
And somehow, through all of it, she was still 'our lils'.
Still laughing, still creating, still loving her animals and still lighting up every single dark moment.
Cancer was something that was happening to Lily-Eva but it never became who she was.
The future she was planning
As treatment went on, we finally began to feel as though the end was in sight.
Lily-Eva was only a few months away from finishing chemotherapy.
We started talking about life after treatment. Mostly importantly to her, we started planning her 'end of chemo party'.
There was going to be something to celebrate. Something to mark everything she had endured. A point where hospitals and chemotherapy would finally stop being the centre of her life.
Lily-Eva was already thinking about other children.
She knew what it was like to spend so much time in hospital. She knew how scary, boring and overwhelming it could be and how much crafts, activities and little moments of distraction could help.
She talked about wanting to start a charity when she was better. She wanted to help other children in hospital feel better in any way she could.
That dream stayed with us. None of us knew just how important it would become.
The news we never expected
Lily-Eva never got to finish her chemotherapy plan. Whilst she was still receiving treatment, the cancer grew. The treatment that was supposed to be destroying the cancer was no longer even controlling it.
And then came the news we had spent the previous 11 months terrified of hearing,
It had spread. The whole of her abdomen was affected. Her remaining kidney, bladder, heart and lungs.
Suddenly, the future we had been talking about disappeared overnight.
We went from believing we had months of treatment left and a life waiting on the other side, to being told they are very worried that they wont be able to get her better.
We didn't get a goodbye
Everything changed so fast. Lily-Eva had gone from being with us and talking to us to becoming incredibly poorly.
There wasn't a period between finding out the cancer had spread and her becoming to poorly to be awake where we could sit together and say everything we wanted to say.
There wasn't time for the goodbye you imagine you would somehow get if the worst ever happened.
She went from being Lily-Eva to becoming so poorly that she could no longer be awake.
And then she was gone.
On the 29th August 2025, 10 days before her 10th birthday, Lily-Eva died.
She was just 9 years old. She had been in treatment for almost a year. She never got to ring the bell, she never got her end of chemo party. She never got the chance to return back to the life she had been fighting so hard to return to.
And we never got our goodbye.
There are no words big enough for what loosing her did to our family.
The world carried on but ours changed forever.
Carrying on what Lily-Eva started
The Lily-Eva Foundation exists because of her.
It began with Lily-Eva herself.
She wanted to help children in hospital once she got better. She understood how important it was to have something to do , something to look forward too and moments where hospitals didn't feel quite so frightening.
She never got the chance to make it happen herself so we will do it for her.
We can't change what happened to Lily-Eva. We can't take another child's illness away.
But we can bring comfort into hard days. We can create moments of happiness when life feels overwhelming.
We can give children choices, distraction, companionship and something to look forward to.
We can stand beside families through hospital stays, difficult treatments and the moments that come afterwards.
Every craft made, every game played, every smile created and every family supported will carry something of Lily-Eva within it.
She didn't get to grow up and create the charity she talked about.
So now, we build it in her name.
Her Idea.
Her name.
Her spirit
The Lily-Eva Foundation.