Five-year-old Nicola Francis has undergone 20 operations after being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive giant cell tumour.
Her mother, Iveta Kosova, sought medical help after Nicola's jaw kept swelling following a fall.
A biopsy at Northampton Hospital confirmed the condition, leading to treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Now, the family remains in limbo, unsure which treatment will be effective.
Her mother, Iveta Kosova, sought medical help after Nicola's jaw kept swelling following a fall.
A biopsy at Northampton Hospital confirmed the condition, leading to treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Now, the family remains in limbo, unsure which treatment will be effective.
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FunTranscript
00:00My name is Iveta and I'm mom of Natasha and Nikola.
00:09We moved here, I think when she was six months old we moved here and she started to walk
00:15and learn.
00:16When Nikola was nine months old, I think 2020, she fell, I can't remember exactly where,
00:23but she hit her face, it swell up, nothing major, but you could see it's a bit swollen,
00:29so I contacted the GP, they said wait for seven days and it will go down, and the half
00:36of her face went down, but the other half didn't go down, it just kept swelling and
00:41swelling, so it was always back and forth, GP, dentist, and it was during the COVID as
00:47well, so you couldn't just freely go anywhere.
00:52And by the time something actually, somebody helped, it just kept swelling, swelling, so
00:59I think it took one month until actually somebody saw us properly and they just referred
01:05us to do an operation in Northampton, so then when they operated the tooth out, I think
01:12they thought it's, obviously would think it's a tooth, or extra tooth, or I don't know,
01:18so they operated that out and it still kept swelling, it still kept growing, so by the
01:25time they knew it can't be the tooth, it's something else going on there, so they done
01:29the biopsy and they found it's a tumour, straight away referred us to Greater Monastery Hospital,
01:35but the worst thing was when they said they don't know what to do with it because they
01:39never heard of it, they never seen it on nine months old babies, so they don't have treatment
01:45for it, so that I just couldn't anymore.
01:47Now we are five years in and still there is no treatment, still we just have to keep operating
01:54all the time, nobody believe it's something wrong with her when you look at her as well
01:58in school, she's always happy, you know, and she doesn't know any better to be honest,
02:04because she knows a bit, nine months old is too little, you know, that's all she knows,
02:10hospitals and you know, tests and operations.
02:15You have good days and bad days, and then you have worse days, so that's how it goes.
02:23We didn't want to accept the diagnosis and it's sort of you live in a limbo, if you don't
02:30talk about it, it's not real, so we didn't really want to put it out there.
02:35Lately I started to accept it now more, with the help of school and that's how it came
02:43to this, with the help of Nicola's school, they wanted to do a little fundraiser, a little
02:51to cheer her up, since you do feel a bit lighter on your conscience that, you know, you're
02:58doing something for her, something more than just, you know, take care of her, cooking,
03:05cleaning and all this.
03:07So she's five years old now and obviously we appreciate all the help, which again I
03:14didn't expect, and I know times are tough and you know, the money obviously is just
03:20there to make her happy, whatever she wants, you know, get her to the hospital, as I say
03:25we always, when we're leaving the hospital we have the tradition we take her to a toy
03:30shop and she picks always a teddy from a toy shop, just little things like that make her happy.