Teesside tot Olivia-Grace Corcoran was flying to London with her family today to start ground breaking treatment in a bid to cure her leukaemia.

The six month old, from Dormanstown, near Redcar, will become only the third person in the country - and the youngest - to undergo a complex and specialist treatment called CAR T cell therapy.

She was diagnosed with a form of acute leukaemia in March at the age of just four months after starting to repeatedly vomit her baby milk back up.

The beautiful little girl, who her family describe as nothing short of amazing, has already undergone chemotherapy to try to beat the disease and was due to have a stem cell transplant at Newcastle's RVI.

Instead, doctors have taken the decision to fly her to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for the highly specialist treatment in a bid to stabilise her condition.

Her dad Jordan, 22, a plumber, and mum Chloe Kirk, 20, will fly with her to the hospital on Tuesday, June 8, for initial tests. She'll then have to spend three months in the capital whilst the complex procedure is carried out.

Jordan said he hasn't had time yet to process the enormity of the situation, instead the young family are concentrating their energy on Olivia-Grace and tackling things as they come.

"It came as a shock when they said go to London, we weren't expecting it," said Jordan.

"We thought we'd be in the RVI in Newcastle but after speaking with the doctors, they wanted to do this new therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

"Olivia-Grace is fine, she's really content and she just seems to get on with things really well."

CAR T cell therapy involves taking a sample of T cells from the blood - the type of cells that fight infection and diseases. They are then taken to a lab and genetically modified to try and get them to recognise cancer cells.

Once they have grown and multiplied, the cells are then dripped back into the bloodstream. The aim is for the CAR T cells to then attack the cancer cells.

In Olivia-Grace's case, says Jordan, the initial T cells will come from an adult blood donor.

The family have been told she is only the third person to have it, and the youngest.

"It makes you wonder who thought of doing that in the first place - but whoever it was, thank you," said Jordan.

After initial bone marrow tests, the young family hope to be back on Teesside on Wednesday. From then, depending on results, Olivia-Grace will have to spend three months at the London hospital.

If the CAR T cell therapy works, the hope is she'll then be able to have a stem cell transplant as planned.

Chloe will stay with her, says Jordan, and the hope is that his mum will be able stay with them too. Jordan works full time but hopes he'll be able to travel up and down to Great Ormond Street Hospital every weekend to be with his family.

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The Dormanstown community have already rallied round with their support by organising a number of fundraising initiatives to help the young family. You can find their GoFundMe page here.

Originally posted here:
Teesside baby will be third in country to have ground breaking complex cancer treatment - Teesside Live