Family's 'world collapses' after tot's unusual symptoms turn out to be aggressive cancer

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The family of an Ayrshire tot battling an aggressive cancer have made a desperate plea to secure £250,000 for a trial drug.

Scott and Natalie Bolton have revealed how their “whole world collapsed” when they were told that their cheeky, chatty and active little girl Ava, three, has an extremely rare childhood cancer that has just a 50 per cent survival rate.The family, including big brother Lucas, five, from Mauchline were given the devastating diagnosis of stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma after hoping that their girl's unusual symptoms were just a virus.Ava started to become unwell just after her third birthday and over Christmas, becoming lethargic and vomiting.

Alarm bells were ringing when the normally active wee girl was refusing to walk and developed bruising under her eye.Ava was sent to Crosshouse Hospital in January where medics were convinced that Ava had a condition known as Transient Erythroblastopenia of childhood (TEC), which they believed was caused by a previous virus and would pass over time.But a specialist in Glasgow ordered further tests and the family’s worst fears were confirmed when they were told their daughter had a cancer that only affects 40 children in the UK each year.More scans revealed that Ava had a primary tumour on her back with secondary tumours on her shoulder, pelvis, hip and shin.Dad Scott, 34, told Ayrshire Live: “To find out our little girl had cancer was just devastating.

Our whole world collapsed.“Initially you are thinking it is okay, it is just a virus. It will go away itself.“To then be told she has cancer is nothing we could have ever imagined.“When you hear it was neuroblastoma, you start googling things and it really scares you.“We were starting to believe everything was