Brave Olivia, 8, loses battle with cancer
An eight-year-old Shropshire girl who defied doctors when they twice gave her just days to live has lost her battle against cancer.
Olivia Ann Parton died in her mother's arms at her family's home in Norton, near Shifnal, on May 20 after a four-and-a-half year battle with the disease. In her final weeks she went on a seaside holiday she had always dreamed of in Ilfracombe in Devon before spending her final days at home.
Olivia first complained of feeling ill in October 2009 and that New Year's Eve – her mother's birthday – she was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors told the family in January 2010 that Olivia would only survive a matter days, such was the severity of the metastatic germ cell tumour rifling her body.
She was then just four months off her fourth birthday and together with her 39-year-old mum Chris, dad Neil, and brothers Matthew, aged 14, and 11-year-old Alex, she was about to embark on an emotional rollercoaster ride lasting more than four years which would take them all to the heights of hope and the depths of despair.
Olivia refused to go home to die following the January 2010 bombshell and instead tried chemotherapy, followed by surgery. She beat the odds and fought back against the cancer but suffered a relapse in November 2010 and so went for a second course of chemo. Sadly, she relapsed again.
An operation to remove Olivia's coxis was carried out in the spring of 2011 and a third course of chemotherapy followed, then she underwent pioneering radiotherapy last June at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Dad Neil, 38, said: "Radiotherapy had never before been tried at the QE on a germ cell tumour and initially the results were amazing but then Olivia relapsed last November. Things were really difficult then because we had exhausted all the treatments open to us.
"I remember that in June 2010, while she was in hospital in Birmingham, medical staff never expected her to leave there alive. She did, however, and last December she and I went on a fantastic trip to Lapland, courtesy of the Wish Upon a Star charity.
"In January this year Olivia underwent radio frequency ablation treatment, something which had only ever been tried on adults in Birmingham before. The results of that were fantastic and we finally thought we had nailed the disease. Then, in March this year, her blood levels went up again.
"A scan showed a problem in her liver and the idea was she would undergo surgery and so a planning scan was done in April but the cancer in her liver was horrific."
A burning wish of Olivia's then was to go to the seaside and so her family went on a week's holiday to Ilfracombe where the youngster got to sit in a Sea King Helicopter.
Mr Parton said:
"She died at home in her mother's arms on May 20. That was the way she said had said all the way through that she wanted to go.
"The support we have had along the way has been absolutely phenomenal and we are so grateful to everyone.
"We, as a family, are still here and now we have our memories of our very special little girl."
Olivia's funeral will take place at Telford Crematorium at 10am on Saturday. The family have asked for any donations to go to the CLIC Sargent charity for children with cancer, to When You Wish Upon a Star and to Battersea Dogs Home where Olivia hoped to work one day.
