Help our Flora live her life without cancer

Mum hopes five-year-old can return to vacciné treatment

- ELIZABETH HUNTER

THE mum of a five-year-old girl suffering the recurrence of a rare cancer has launched a fundraising campaign to get her back on a US-based vaccine trial.

Flora Gentleman was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was just two in 2021 an aggressive childhood cancer with a 50 percent chance of long-term survival.

After more than a year of NHS treatment, Flora's family were told she had no signs of active disease meaning that she was eligible for a rare New York-based vaccine trial, aimed at preventing relapses.

The East Lothian family and their community rallied together, managing to raise £305,000 in a fundraising campaign - and, in September 2022, Flora began the trial.

Flora, who has also been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and is currently non-verbal, flew with her family to New York three times, receiving six vaccines.

However, last September, a scan revealed Flora had relapsed, requiring her to leave the trial and undergo further NHS chemotherapy and immunotherapy in Edinburgh.