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East London Girl, 9, in Remission After Rare Chemo for Post-Transplant Cancer

Her team now monitors for relapse with twice-yearly PET scans following a 10-cycle regimen.

Overview

  • Bay developed sudden kidney failure at age two and was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she was intubated in ICU and started on dialysis.
  • She received a living-donor kidney from her aunt Mimi in August 2021, with post-surgical lymphatic damage that prolonged her hospital stay to December 2021.
  • In December 2024 she was diagnosed with EBV-linked post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder in the bowel after abnormal blood tests and gastrointestinal bleeding.
  • An initial lower-dose chemotherapy plus immunotherapy produced only a partial response, leading consultants in 2025 to use an aggressive 10-cycle protocol reported as used roughly nine times in over two decades.
  • A November 2025 PET scan showed no evidence of disease, and she has since resumed activities such as Brownies, chess and performing arts, with ongoing psychosocial support from Spread a Smile, which reports tens of thousands of bedside and virtual visits across NHS sites in 2025–2026.