Family raise awareness after daughter's brain cancer diagnosis

Indeg Glyn Roberts was just six when she received her shocking diagnosis in November 2020 after months of vomiting, which doctors thought was caused by a virus.

She then had to undergo a nine hour brain surgery, followed by two months of proton beam therapy - just months after she had entered year two in primary school.

Years later, she is still undergoing treatment to combat her cancer.

Indeg with mum Ceri in 2023. SWNS

During her treatment, her devastated parents Ceri, 42 and Huw, 50, were forced to live apart for weeks at a time.

The couple from Rhoshirwaun, near Aberdaron, are now urging people to sign a petition aiming to raise funding for research into brain tumours.

Mum-of-four Ceri said that had her condition gone un-diagnosed for any longer, Indeg would have died.

Speaking about her diagnosis, Ceri said: “I dropped to my knees, sobbing at the news.

"We were blue-lighted to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and went straight to neurology where Indeg had emergency surgery to drain the build-up of fluid which was causing her symptoms.

“We were told if it was left any longer it would have been fatal. Everything happened so quickly. From an appointment with our local GP, we were then miles away from home and Indeg was being prepared for a second surgery.”

Indeg at Alder Hey during chemotherapy, June 2021. SWNS

The couple had become aware that Indeg was not well after she began to complain of persistent symptoms similar to an ordinary virus.

After seeing a handful of doctors due to her persistent condition, Ceri says that she was told that her condition should pass.

Doctors were later alarmed by Indeg's sudden weight loss in November, before a CT scan at hospital in Bangor revealed her condition.

Indeg at Alder Hey having her first MRI. SWNS

Ceri said: “Indeg complained of a severe headache which went away. She then had a sore throat and cough.

“Nothing fazed our little girl. She would vomit in the morning and go off to school for the day as if nothing had happened.

“I searched online for the cause of Indeg’s symptoms and saw a page about brain tumours and I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something more sinister than a virus.

“Indeg had the expected side effects such as hair loss. However, she was always on the go and wanted to be active.

"As soon as she would wake from the anaesthetic, she would be out of the hospital bed and in the playroom."

Indeg in April 2020, before any symptoms appeared. SWNS

Indeg is now part of a research trial at Alder Hey called The International SIOP Ependymoma ll trial - aiming to improve the outcome of patients with ependymoma.

Ceri and Huw meanwhile are backing a campaign by Brain Tumour Research to ring fence £110mn in funding for research into the condition - which is the biggest killer of children and adults under 40 of any cancer.

Ceri added: "As parents with a child living with brain cancer, we still have many unanswered questions such as: how long was Indeg’s tumour growing? How did it originate? What causes it to grow again?

“I know that many other patients and families will have the same. If we are to understand this disease, we must fund the research to find the answers.”