20 February 2024 , 06:25
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A courageous girl who battled and beat a brain tumour has hailed her “shining star” as she prepares to celebrate her birthday cancer-free.
Concerns about Aurora Farren’s health were first raised several years ago when she developed an unquenchable thirst, was passing urine more often than normal and had stopped growing. Tests showed she had developed a rare condition known as diabetes insipidus. Lumbar puncture tests then showed that Aurora had cancer.
On March 31, the brave little girl will turn nine but she spent her birthday last year in the high dependency unit at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital on her big day last year- enduring her first round of chemotherapy. Last August she got to ring the bell when she beat the disease.
Now proud parents Jenna, 34, and David Farren, 41, and her sister Ada, six, have told of their gratitude as little Aurora has returned to school free of the deadly disease. Jenna told the Daily Record : “Even on the hardest of days I was in absolute awe of how she coped with everything life handed her in the past year. From being told she had cancer to spending her birthday in the high dependency unit to losing her beautiful red hair and spending weeks upon weeks far away from home, Aurora has been a shining star.
Aurira undergoing treatment (PA)
Aurora wearing a radiotherapy mask she painted like the marvel character Venom (PA)“Nothing prepares you for seeing the proton beam therapy machine. It’s like something from a sci-fi movie. Aurora had to lie completely still for 20 minutes during each of the 30 rounds of treatment. Once again, Aurora took it all in her stride.”
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Speaking of the earlier diagnosis, Jenna added : “It was just absolutely devastating.
“The cells they’d found were a mix of aggressive and less aggressive cells. It was hard to explain to Aurora that the medicine she needed to treat the cancer would make her beautiful hair fall out.
Aurora with her mother Jenna, brother Ada and dad David (PA)“During the night when Aurora was in for her first round of chemotherapy it was really quite difficult at times. Even on her eighth birthday, she just lay on the hospital bed and put up with it. There was no fuss."
In August, before returning home to Scotland, Aurora was cheered by doctors and nurses as she rang the bell at the hospital in Manchester to mark the end of treatment. The youngster is now clear of cancer is back enjoying school in p4 at Fyvie Primary School.
She has now been invited to sound the horn at the start line of Cancer Research's Race for Life in Aberdeen at Beach Esplanade on June 30.