Parents to run marathon for daughter with leukaemia

A couple from Sheffield are running the London Marathon to raise money for Leukaemia UK, after their four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with the disease.

Freyja Harpham and Zac Turner, both 30, said they decided to take on the 26.2 mile (42km) challenge on Sunday to "turn their pain into purpose".

Their daughter, Billie, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in 2022, and has undergone chemotherapy and a tracheostomy, a procedure to help her breathe but which has left her unable to speak.

Ms Harpham said: "The chemotherapy they use is so harsh on little kids' bodies. It would be nice to have a future where there are kinder treatments."

Billie was just 21 months old when she came down with what appeared to be a sickness bug.

Mr Harpham said: "She'd been vomiting for two days, so we rang the GP who told us to take her straight to A&E.

"They said it was just gastroenteritis and she would get over it soon."

However, over the next few weeks Billie started to experience other symptoms, including a high temperature, bruising, and a cough.

When Billie started to struggle with breathing, her parents rushed her back to hospital and in November 2022 Billie was diagnosed with ALL - rare type of blood cancer, most often diagnosed in children aged 0-4 years.

"I felt like the world was about to end. I knew deep down something was wrong with her, but we never expected that," Ms Harpham said.

"She went through two-and-a-half years of treatment and finished in February this year.

"She is doing really well now, but one of the chemotherapies that Billie received paralysed her vocal chords, so she ended up having to have a tracheostomy which she has still got now.

"It has got to stay for the moment, but she is fine now, she is doing really well and she is the happiest little girl in the world."

Ms Harpham and Mr Turner will be among 32 people running the marathon for the charity.

Russell Benson, Community and Challenge Events Manager at Leukaemia UK, said: "We are so grateful to our amazing supporters running the London Marathon for us this Sunday and cannot wait to cheer them on.

"Their incredible support will help Leukaemia UK fund ground-breaking research into kinder and more effective treatments to stop leukaemia from devastating lives."

The charity said blood cancer, of which leukaemia is a type, is the fifth most common type of cancer and the third biggest cancer killer in the UK.

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