Every year our local council, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, host an awards ceremony in which a child from a local school is nominated for their achievement. This year by a unanimous vote, the teachers at St Marys and St Peters School decided that Kiera should be the recipient. Today she received her certificate from the Mayor of Richmond at the ceremony at The Stoop, which is where NEC Harlequins play. We're very proud of her! That said, tonight she's tucked up in bed in Kingston Hospital after developing a bug in one of her lines, but she hopes to be out tomorrow morning to continue her schooling and her cycling proficiency award. Photos are on the left!

K is doing well at the moment. She went back to school yesterday and on top of that has started on her cycling proficiency badge. She was so pleased to be able to ride her bike again, after such a long time of not having the energy to do so. It's all in short bursts and she still gets tired easily but it does encourage us all.

K and A got back from Marsden yesterday. K is well but is requiring a top up of anti biotics every now and then. The first was last night at 11pm, so she and I stayed in Kingston overnight. More later this afternoon and we'll see how it goes from there.

It was going to be oh so easy! Chemo on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then into school Wednesday pm for the knitting club! But not so! K took a bit of a dislike to one of the chemicals that they pump into her which resulted in a bit of a hairy day. She got out of bed and lost her balance and her hands went into a kind of spasm. It seems that this is one of the know side effects of the drugs but usually occurs the first time it's administered. This was the seventh dose so it just goes to show that we can't take anything for granted. Anyway, they pumped her full of some "blue" stuff which seemed to sort her out and this evening I went over to the Marsden loaded with clean clothes and her favourite food (paste). (Tin of peeled plum tomatoes, 2 slices of bread, grated cheese and and egg. Put in blender, blend then gently heat. Pour over pasta etc). If she continues on the up they should be home tomorrow, however, there is also a slight chance that one of the Hickman lines has an infection so that might need some visits to Kingston. As far as long term is concerned, we've been told that the next course of action will be radiotherapy starting on 2nd Jan 2007. As far as I know, this will be a series of daily visits to Marsden as an outpatient, Mon to Friday, over a number of weeks. Plus it's also possible that chemo will continue as well.

(Happy birthday, Dad, wherever you are!)

Kieras 7th session starts today, 20th November. It's shorter than the usual as (I assume) that it's a stop gap while the consultants consider the next course of action now surgery has been ruled out. Since coming out of Kingston K has got better with each day and Ann and I both think the week "off" of chemo has done her good. She's been back to school, been to London and a party. All things that a girl of her age should be doing!

Funny how a week on holiday in Hong Kong goes quicker than a week in Kingston Hospital! K was released this afternoon and is as fit as can be at the moment although she has to have a daily infusion of anti biotics. Her next chemo was due tomorrow but that's not going ahead for the time being. Tonight she's having a sleep over with a friend (she insists!) and Ann and I are off to the Momentum Opera at the Landmark Centre. If you're going, hope you enjoy it! Thanks again to everyone for their support and messages, it's a real comfort to know that we have you as friends and relatives!

This has not been a good week for K! The usual anti biotics haven't worked and there's not been a real clue as to what is wrong. She's developed a number of sores around all the her mouth and bottom area. The codeine side effects are constipation so you can imagine the distress she's been in. Yesterday they changed the pain killer so hopefully that problem has been addressed. Ann had an appointment with the Prof at the Royal Brompton yesterday. He will not operate to take any of the tumour out. He said that it would be too invasive for what he could actually achieve (we're talking opening up the chest cavity as they do with heart patients). "Put it this way, I wouldn't do it on my daughter" were his comments. So that just leaves chemo and radiotherapy. Today K has gone to the Brompton for a series of scans and when she gets back to Kingston a CT scan is booked in. I must admit however that this morning she was sitting up in bed, colouring and drawing and in little discomfort. I've no idea when she'll be out, her count is up as they've put her on the same medicine as she had prior to the stem cell harvest which also seems to have helped her, so sometime soon, I hope!

K & A are still in Kingston. K's temperature is all over the place for no apparent reason. Yesterday she had and x-ray which showed no problems and so it's more down to more blood tests to find the reason. K's next chemotherapy, while longer term decisions are made  is scheduled for 13th to 15th November.

Wearing my other hat as Treasurer at Hospital Radio Hillingdon, I'd like to ask you to visit our web shop if you intend to buy Christmas presents on line this year. Shops include John Lewis, Amazon, M&S, Play.com and hundreds more. If you go to www.radiohillingdon.com and click on the link, or bookmark www.buy.at/radiohillingdon then every time you make a purchase, Hospital Radio Hillingdon receives a commission. Subsequent visits to any of the shops need to be made via the web shop at www.buy.at/radiohillingdon for commission on your purchase to be payable, however there is NO extra cost to you. Having been with Kiera in Kingston Hospital and the Royal Marsden, I know what a difference Hospital Radio makes to patients, so please support us as and when you can! Thanks!

Not too bad a week this week with just a blood and platelets transfusion on Thursday. K managed to get to last nights firework display at school but took a turn for the worse over night resulting in a visit to Kingston hospital. We're hoping that she'll be able to come out for the evening so that we can go to our friends bonfire and firework party. No doubt it's going to be at least another 48 hours before she's well enough to come home.

The sixth course of chemo has been completed and K and A are back home. On Wednesday we had a meeting with K's consultant to discuss what options are available now. I wish I had something definite to say but as yet they are undecided as to what to do. There is a slim possibility that the surgeon who carried out K's biopsy will be able to surgically remove some of the tumour, but we need to see him first. If he does operate then there will still be chemo or radiotherapy needed to kill off any that's left. Chemo and radiotherapy are still on the cards or a combination of both. As yet we're none the wiser except to say that a seventh course of chemo has been booked in for 3 weeks time. K is continuing to show strength and courage, even during the times between the sessions where her defences are down and obviously suffering a lot.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to visit this site, we'll keep you all posted when we have more news.

K and A went to Masrden this afternoon. Despite K's readings being lower than expected they've decided to go ahead with the 6th chemo session. This is the last in the planned medication. On Wednedsay we'll be meeting up with K's consultant to discuss the way forward. So K gets to spend half term in the Marsden.

The sixth round of chemo has been delayed because K's blood count isn't as high as it should be so we've got the weekend together and there'll be another try on Monday. The opening of the Momentum garden appeared in this weeks Surrey Comet and the photo and write up is on the left.

This week is National Giving Week and to celebrate, London's Magic 105.4 are giving away £10,000 to charities that are nominated. This is how you can help get Momentum a share of the cash: Please go to the Magic website by clicking here. Then nominate Momentum and give a brief reason why they should receive some of the cash. And from all at Momentum, a big THANK YOU for doing so!

K was discharged from Kingston this morning, just in time for A to take her for a scheduled appointment at Marsden. Tonight we're all together under one roof and that's how we hope it will stay until Friday when K's 6th dose of chemo gets underway.

Well, Kiera came home on Thursday afternoon and was fine, but a few hours later her temperature went up then down then up again. By 8pm it was over 39 degrees and so after calling the hospital Kiera, Ann and I tootled off to Kingston. And there Ann and Kiera have stayed. Looks like until at least Saturday. Kiera is well but her temperature keeps fluctuating so they need to keep an eye on her. Well, I stayed with K on Saturday and we had hoped that by midday we'd know if K was free to come out. She was, but only for a few hours so that she could go to a party on Sunday afternoon. We'd have liked for her to be home, indeed for all of us to be here but once again there are no clues as to why K has not been feeling her best and they need to continue with the AB's and investigation. Ann & K get to spend another night in their fur lined cell. I'm here. (Got the cat and the fish for company but it ain't the same!)

After a brilliant week in which Kiera met Princess Alexandra, the children's Poet Laureate Jacqueline Wilson and managed todays trip to the Imperial War Museum with her class, the viruses finally got to her and she is now in Kingston Hospital, plumbed up to anti biotics etc. I must admit that the Momentum garden has made a big difference to the view from her room there! Usually the curtains have to be closed as people can see into the room from the corridor at the opposite side of the play area but now there's a curved divider with up lighters and globes in the garden that operate by remote control and change colour as well. It really is superb! It's probably at least a 48 hour stay for the moment.

So, following the false alarm on Tuesday, K has been quite busy this week, managing school all week and Guides on Friday night. Today she was one of two girls asked to present a posy to HRH Princess Alexandra after she had officially opened the Momentum Play Area in the hospital. It really is a fantastic area, with a separate shielded area where children who are suffering from cancer can go without fear of contracting any bugs from other children. Today it was the official opening ceremony and tomorrow all the children will be having a party and Jacqueline Wilson, the children's author and a patron of Momentum, will be there. Pictures from today are on the left!

One other important announcement! Every year the schools in Richmond are invited to nominate a pupil as part of the Celebration of Achievement Awards. Kiera's school, St Mary's and St Peter's School have nominated Kiera this year as a tribute to her courage, bravery, motivation and inspiration. Apparently she was nominated unanimously by all the teachers at the school, so thank you to them and well done Kiera! The awards will take place on 29th November and will also get a mention here!

A & K got back home this afternoon, but just a few hours for K! It seems that there's an infection in her water and so needs to be on some antibiotics again which need to be administered 3 times a day. So tonight, K and I will be staying at Kingston but K should be able to get to school tomorrow. In the morning her class are are attending the Junior Citizen scheme at the Stockyard at Bushey Park. K intends to be with her class for that and hopefully the rest of the day before going back to Kingston for more AB's.

Bit of a false alarm. After spending the night in Kingston, K's samples have come back negative, so she'll be at home for the next few days Hurrah!

A & K set of for The Royal Marsden this morning for chemo No 5. K has been fine since coming home from the stem cell harvest on Wednesday afternoon. It seem that the harvest was a great success and she'll have plenty to recharge herself with later on during the treatment. Thanks to everyone for your comments and best wishes! K should be back home on Monday.

The stem cell harvest started today, after the last failed attempt. K went into the theatre to have a "vascath" inserted into her inner-thigh region and was just being wheeled out of theatre when I arrived just after 1pm. She was understandably a bit groggy and was complaining that the insertion point was hurting her, but Calpol and codeine soon sorted that out and she was able to sit up and start eating. (Spaghetti hoops!) Whilst she was eating, the machine that does the harvesting was set up and then finally attached to her. The picture was taken as blood was being drawn from her, separated in a centrifuge and put back in, via a "warmer" that warmed the blood up to body temperature. This whole procedure takes about 4 hours and we won't know until tomorrow if they have enough stem cells. If all is well, they'll be home tomorrow afternoon.

K is in good form, the previous dosages of GCSF has raised her immune and blood readings to very high levels. I think she's becoming more blase about the lack of hair and agreed to let me put a picture of her on the blog. I've taken the liberty to put a photo on that I took when she first lost her hair. She is a beautiful girl!

K & A went of to the Mardsen this morning in preparation for the stem cell harvest procedure. K had an echo taken of her heart and that has shown no problem. There appeared to be some liquid around it some weeks ago, prior to the chemo starting, so that's a good result. Also, the Dr's can do a test called CD34 which from what I gather can define if there are enough stem cells to harvest and that's proved good, so tomorrow the harvest procedure begins.

K has been in excellent spirits over the last few days, which has been a big improvement from the end of last week when she had so much trouble with mouth ulcers and general soreness of the gums.

Pleased to report that K got back this evening and managed to go to Guides. She's still not "comfortable" and the pre - med for the stem cell harvest will continue but I hope that we'll have a nice weekend all together, especially as it's Ann's birthday on Sunday. On Monday, Ann and K will go to Marsden for the rest of the harvest which we hope will be completed fully by mid week.

Kiera has been in Kingston since Tuesday morning. It's not been an easy week for her with the main problem being mouth ulcers and sores caused by her lowered immune system. The staff at Kingston, as always, have been great and this morning she's greatly improved. After taking blood samples from her, she and Ann have gone straight to the Royal Marsden for the start at the second attempt of the stem cell harvest. We're hoping that the infection has been eradicated and that the harvest will go ahead this time.

After a reasonably good week, K is back in Kingston on antibiotics. This is about what we've come to expect at this part of the cycle between the chemo sessions.

K started her forth session on Friday evening. I'm glad to report that all is well and she is expected to go back to school tomorrow (Tuesday).

Kiera managed to get back to school today, the first day of term. At the moment she still needs an infusion of antibiotics at 7am and 7pm each day which take about an hour to administer. So it's been decided that she stays in hospital overnight so that she (and Ann) can get a good nights sleep, have the 7am dose then come back home. Today she was home by 10 to 9 and managed to get into class with all of her friends, on time. She's really excited about being back and if anything is upset that she'll miss Friday, when her next chemo starts. We're really pleased and proud of her!

So at midday today, K & A left Kingston and headed down to The Marsden, only to find out that the harvest had been cancelled. Everyone seemed to know about it except us! It seems, and quite rightly, that there's no point taking stem cells from a person who has just had an infection in case it's not fully cleared. Then they'd be storing potentially infected cells. But on one thought to let us in on it. Understandably A & K are mightily fed up especially as K now has to have a twice daily infusion of more anti-biotics at Kingston. So, hopefully K will make the first day at school on Wednesday and the next scheduled chemo is still planned for the weekend.

Well, K has had a few infections this week which seem to be taken care of but has again meant a stay in hospital. Her throat and mouth have also been sore, due to viral infections but mouthwash has helped. On Friday, Ann and K went to The Royal Marsden to start the pre-treatment for this coming weeks stem cell harvest procedure. While they were at the Marsen, K's temperature went up and they insisted that K and A go to Kingston (after the first pre stem cell treatment) in an ambulance. That left the car at Marsden so I got a bus down there (X26 to Sutton then a K4, total time, 80 mins, not bad!) and picked the car up. Then I drove to Kingston and met them there. They were able to treat K and she was allowed home for Friday night. On Saturday, the second pre stem cell treatment was due to be administered at Kingston so A and K turned up, only to find that they had determined another infection and so K had to stay in on Saturday night with me. The good news is that after the Sunday pre stem cell treatment, we were allowed home for the day and tonight K & A are back in Kingston (the usual room) to have more anti biotics overnight.

Tomorrow they will go straight the the Mardsen and K will start the stem cell harvest procedure. It should be just going onto a drip to be hydrated and they'll do some further tests on K's blood. The tube will be inserted on Tuesday under a light general anaesthetic and the first harvest will begin on Wednesday. If all goes well, K may be back at school on Thursday but they may decide to start her next round of chemo, which is due to start on Friday anyway.

So, at the moment it's a guessing game as to what is going to happen exactly. There are lots of variables but I'll continue to post any news here as soon as I can.

Hope you're all keeping well, thanks again for all the support and friendship shown to us, we all send our love, thanks and best wishes!

Although K is still neutropedic it seems that the hospital have identified the bug that was giving her trouble and have been able to send her home armed with a sack of anti-biotics that only need to be administered once a day. So the outreach nurse will be able to do that tomorrow, and as K starts her pre stem cell harvest treatment on Friday, the rest will be done either at Marsden or Kingston. If all goes to plan, K will be admitted to the Marsden on Monday and the harvest procedure should take place on Tuesday. Then, guess what? It's Chemo round 4! I think were all on remote control!

As you will know, when K goes into Kingston Hospital, she's kept confined in an isolation room. I think there are a total of three rooms, two of which have been wired up for broadband. This gives the kids the chance to connect up and communicate with their friends using messenger and also is a valuable link to what's happening out side. Until recently the broadband was provided by BT/Yahoo, who it seemed had promised to fund the service for two years. However, recently they cut the service with no warning or explanation. It means that both rooms have had their internet service disabled, which is a bit of a blow.

If you know of any company that would be willing to sponsor/fund this valuable service, please drop me a line by e-mail, jeff@jeffbrown.co.uk and I'll forward the offer to Momentum, who run the charity at Kingston Hospital.

Thanks!

K has had a great week. On Thursday she spent the night under canvas (again) somewhere not far away. There was a big pond there and she and her friends managed to catch 5 fish, which were all thrown back. Then on Friday, I took the train to Liphook and met up with Ann and K and we went to Hollycombe Steam Farm which proved an excellent day out. A picture of K in the big wheel is attached. Saturday we all went to see "Cars" at the cinema and today some friends who live in the United Arab Emirates visited us. During the day K had complained of a bit of a sore throat and this evening just after our friends had left her temperature started rising, so it was a trip to Kingston Hospital...where A & K are staying for the night at least. We'll find out tomorrow hopefully what the results of the various tests are. Obviously we hope that K will be out soon.

Hope you all have a good Bank Holiday, more when I know what's happening.