A LITTLE girl who has spent much of her short life so far in hospital continues to defy doctors with her progress.
Jessie Stocks was diagnosed with leukaemia in January 2016 which led to other serious health conditions.
She spent 20 months in Sheffield Children’s Hospital, but her mum Mel is extremely proud of how four-year-old Jessie has progressed.
Mel, 39, of Mitchelson Avenue, Dodworth, said Jessie had even started walking again.
She said: “Jessie is doing amazing. She’s still got lifelong complications, but compared to where she was this time last year, she’s 100 times better. She’s started walking again. We visited Flamingo Land and she took three or four steps. She was very wobbly, but off she went.
“She’s started nursery at Penistone St John’s and she loves it, and she’s doing swimming for the first time. She’s doing all sorts of things, she still loves play dough and sticking. She loves playing with her sister Macy, they are inseparable. The love they have for each other melts your heart.”
Jessie has lung damage, adrenal suppression, immune suppression and sometimes has oxygen at night. She recently spent a week in hospital and needed emergency injections to keep her alive. But the family is taking each day as it comes and is looking forward to Christmas.
Mel said: “We’re just taking things as they come. At the moment she is still in remission, but she has osteopenia (weak bones) due to high dose chemotherapy and prolonged steroid use. She is still going to see the metabolic bone team and will have treatment for her bones when she gets older, and for the rest of her life. The chances are she will have learning difficulties.
“She could get secondary cancer before she gets to her teens, but this is about being positive and about how well she is doing now. If we worked on odds and chances, then Jessie wouldn’t be here. She’s such a little cheeky chops. After everything she’s been through and is still going through she always has a smile on her face. There are times she’s in pain but she never grumbles. Even at hospital with consultants prodding her here, there and everywhere, she just takes it in her stride. I suppose she thinks it’s normal which is quite sad.
“She doesn’t complain, she just does it because she knows it’s going to make her better.”
Mel has now set herself a mission to make fun activity packs for children who will spend Christmas in Sheffield Children’s Hospital, and has been selling car stickers and window stickers which say ‘Keep Fighting Jessie’ to raise money. Rather than just giving the children arts and crafts materials, the packs will also contain activities for them to complete.
The stickers can be purchased by contacting Mel on Facebook.
