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Seriously-ill Westgate schoolgirl Aurora Pile-Gray, 10, in remission and about to start transplant journey

A schoolgirl whose aggressive cancer spread throughout her body leaving her family fearing the worst is now cancer-free three months later.

Aurora Pile-Gray, from Westgate-on-Sea, who has bravely fought Burkitts Lymphoma for a year, still has some way to go though, and is about to have a transplant from a bone marrow donor.

Keisha Pile-Gray with daughter Aurora. Picture: Keisha Pile-Gray/Growing Pains Paper Planes
Keisha Pile-Gray with daughter Aurora. Picture: Keisha Pile-Gray/Growing Pains Paper Planes

Back in January, her family were told her disease had progressed rapidly and spread to her skull, the bones in her face, her upper and lower eyelids, neck glands, chest, lungs, spine, abdomen, kidneys, adrenal glands, liver and her pelvis.

Consultants discussed possible end of life care, but mum Keisha says they were not ready to let her go and Aurora wasn't ready to give up.

Now, results from scans show she is in complete remission after being on targeted cancer drug Inotuzumab.

The 10-year-old St Crispin's schoolgirl, however, is not out of the woods yet.

After a year of intense chemotherapy, Keisha says her daughter's bone marrow is completely obliterated and a transplant is the only option, otherwise the disease will return.

Aurora is fighting an aggressive cancer. Picture: Growing Pains and Paper Planes/Keisha Pile Gray
Aurora is fighting an aggressive cancer. Picture: Growing Pains and Paper Planes/Keisha Pile Gray

Even then, they have been given only a 10-20% chance that it will achieve long-lasting remission.

In her blog Growing Pains and Paper Planes, she admits they don’t know what the outcome will be.

"Aurora has beaten the odds this far and we’ve got to hope that she continues to do so," Keisha writes.

"She’s strong, and she’s stubborn and she’s still got plenty of fight left in her.

"She’s been amazing throughout this entire journey and I’m unbelievably proud to call her my daughter.

Aurora Pile-Gray. Picture: @all.perfectly.imperfect Instagram
Aurora Pile-Gray. Picture: @all.perfectly.imperfect Instagram

"I’m in awe of her strength, determination and resilience and she’s shown us all that sometimes the smallest hearts overcome the biggest battles."

Aurora, who has had seven cycles of chemotherapy and relapsed twice, has now had the first of 10 rounds of radiotherapy sessions as part of the next step in her treatment.

Keisha admits the next few months will be the hardest of their lives.

"Although I feel like I’m more prepared going in this time, I still feel like I’m going in blind," she said.

"We have no experience of transplant other than what we’ve heard from others, but even that’s just snippets of what we’ve been told.

Aurora was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after complaining of a sore chin
Aurora was diagnosed with cancer just weeks after complaining of a sore chin

"We don’t know what the outcome will be, but it’s a journey we have to take."

Aurora's remission and the start of the transplant process comes exactly a year after she was diagnosed with the fast-spreading cancer, after suffering awful symptoms, which were initially dismissed as a viral infection.

After undergoing gruelling rounds of chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden in London she was given the all-clear in September, only for her family to be told it was back two weeks later and more aggressive than ever.

In November, she went into remission but in January relapsed for a second time, with the odds stacked against her.

A fundraiser for life-saving treatment reached £31,441 and a campaign for more people to join the bone marrow donor register was launched.

Keisha says this next step in the process with be "brutal" but that her "little lion" has already overcome the impossible.

"Our bags are packed, and our tears are brewing, but we have each other and she has all the courage in the world," she added.

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet

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