Hope House at 21: Brave little Alyvia's remarkable battle
She is a delightful little girl who makes the tiniest, most accurate animals in coloured plasticine – and there will always be a dragon in there, her favourite.
But Alyvia Miller is also a quite remarkable youngster, not yet eight but with the wisdom of someone much older.
Alyvia is also another child with an unpronounceable condition, but one which her family has had to learn and which they all have to live with.
She is a regular visitor to Hope House for which everyone says, thank goodness it's there, and in between times goes to school. In September, Alyvia is going to Horton special school in Telford.
Are you raising money for Hope House or have a story to tell about the hospice?
Shirley Tart would love to hear from you. You can email her at shirleyhopehouse@shropshirestar.co.uk and if you have a favourite picture we may be able to use, send us that as well.
Dont forget to also add details like full name, address, phone number and email address.
See all our cpverage of Hope House's 21st anniversary year at shropshirestar.com/news/hope-house-at-21
She has lost her hair seven times after chemotherapy sessions and the sombre news is that she could need chemotherapy over the next 12 years.
The plucky little girl has neurofibromatosis Type 1 and in Alyvia's case, that translates into optic pathway glioma, a tumour which has attacked the optic nerve which means her sight is heavily impaired.
Alyvia's mother Megan said: "It's a spontaneous genetic condition affecting one in 25,000 which can cause learning conditions.
"She started chemotherapy in 2011 and has been on and off it since then."
Alyvia will celebrate her eighth birthday next Saturday at a Wacky Warehouse celebration.
Her family are positive, enjoy every day they can and simply get on with it. Megan came to this country from Canada where her daughters – Lilly is 11 – were born. They now live in Trench and while hospitals, treatments and obvious health worries for the little girl loom large, optimism is alive and well in this home.
Just as it is at Hope House itself where even in the darkest times, love and laughter are somehow found and shared.
Megan and her partner Scott Blakemore, as well as delightful little dog Teddy, do all they can to make sure the girls are as happy as they can be and don't miss out on anything which it is in their power to achieve.
She said: "When she was first losing her hair, she didn't mind it at all. But this time, she suddenly said half-way through that she had changed her mind. She had suddenly started to think that people thought she was a boy and there was nothing I could do about it."
But there was something Megan could do – and she is doing it. Needless to say, Alyvia is delighted that come Sunday April 10, her mummy will also be going home without hair.
Megan chuckles: "Kelly Khan from the Shabby 2 Chic salon in Trench is doing it for us and I'm hoping to raise some money for Hope House as well. Actually, I've already raised more than £300."
