'We are so proud of our warrior daughter'

It's another success for brave Freya Harris, from Lincolnshire, who takes Pride Of Britain honours after walking away with a Crufts award in March

- ALI GRAVES

Being told your child has a rare and life-threatening cancer is a parent’s worst nightmare. And that’s exactly how it felt to Gemma Harris, 34, and her husband Rikki, 35, in 2021 when their eight-year-old daughter Freya was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumour, a rare kidney cancer that is diagnosed in around 80 children in the UK each year.

After Freya won this year’s Pride Of Britain Child Of Courage Award, Gemma tells us, “I’ve found a strength in myself that I never imagined was there.”

A SHOCK DIAGNOSIS 

Gemma lives in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, and says, “She had quite a few symptoms like a sore belly, she was being sick quite a lot and she’d lost her appetite. She’s normally an energetic, outdoorsy child but was very lethargic. She also had a lump in her belly.”

The family was moving house at the time and doctors thought Freya’s symptoms could be stress-induced constipation.

“It took three or four A&E visits until someone decided to refer us,” says Gemma. “A scan was done and quite quickly everything changed. It went from maybe nothing serious to something very serious in a very short space of time. Nothing can prepare you for that.”

In hospital Freya had a Hickman line inserted to introduce antibiotics directly into her bloodstream. She also had a kidney, and lung and kidney tumours, removed and underwent biopsies and abdominal drains.