A young girl passed away tragically just days after getting diagnosed with a rare brain condition.
Emily Smith, 8, was a cheerful and bubbly young girl from Suffolk, England, who was enjoying the summer heat with her family when she suddenly felt discomfort in her arm.
On the following day, the girl developed a limp and her concerned parents immediately took her to the hospital for testing.
While the doctors initially weren’t worried about the girl’s condition, an MRI scan confirmed everyone’s worst fears – a tumor was growing rapidly deep inside Emily’s brain.
Even though the tumor wasn’t there long according to the doctors, the prognosis was grim and Emily was given just weeks to live with the aggressive form of tumor known as diffuse midline gliomas.
Since the condition is incurable, the family went from enjoying their summer vacation to preparing for the 8-year-old’s inevitable death overnight.
Just five days after the diagnosis, Emily underwent emergency surgery after collapsing and falling into a coma following an episode of intense headache and vomiting.
Unfortunately, the young girl never woke up and was pronounced dead six days later.
“She was just amazing. She was really clever. She loved school [and] had lots of friends. She said she wanted to be an artist when she was older,” Emily’s older brother, Harry, expressed after raising $25,000 for Brain Tumor Charity in honor of his sibling.
“[Brain tumors] are one of the biggest killers. I want to change that and raise as much money as we can,” he added.
Speaking out was also Emily’s grieving mom, Sarah, who branded her daughter as a very active and lovely child.
“She was a very good story writer. She used to play the piano and ukulele. Everything is very difficult for everybody to get their head around,” she said.
“She skipped out on school on the last day of July and then never went back. Her friends never saw her when she was sick. It all happened in 12 days. It was very quick… [the] worst of the worst.
“The doctor said she didn’t have the normal symptoms because the tumor was so deep. It was very shocking because she was only sick for a very short amount of time. Usually there’s more to slow it down but with her it was so unstable and deep.”
Our thoughts remain with Emily’s loved ones during this challenging time.