Parents of a toddler who kept picking up coughs and colds assumed it was due to germs at nursery before discovering it was actually leukemia.
Beatrice Inow, now two, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) – cancer of the white blood cells – when she was just 14 months old in March 2024. Her parents, Oliver, 35, and Fiona, 40, noticed she had picked up sickness bugs and coughs but attributed it to more illness around during the winter months and her starting nursery.
Beatrice eventually caught bronchiolitis but wasn’t getting better, and after visits to the GP and A&E, she was diagnosed with leukemia – leaving Oliver and Fiona feeling like their world had “imploded”. Beatrice was transferred from Whittington Hospital in north London to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and underwent four rounds of intense chemotherapy over the next six months.
Luckily, the treatment was successful Beatrice is now cancer-free and back at home enjoying life with her family and older brother, Jarlath, four, after ringing the end-of-treatment bell in August. Dad Oliver is now preparing to run the London Marathon to raise money for the GOSH Charity.
Oliver, a chief financial officer, from Highgate, London, said: “It’s such a joy everyday to be through that and have it in rear view mirror. You always have that niggle in the back of your mind of the risk of relapse, but her energy and how healthy she is now is great to see.
“Because of the nature of how intense it was, the people in the hospital really do become an extension of your family. You see doctors, nurses, and play therapists more than your family – it becomes this surreal experience.”
Before her diagnosis in March 2024, Beatrice had been coming down with coughs and colds which her parents initially thought little of. Oliver said: “In back of our minds we just noticed she wasn’t getting better but we didn’t make the mental leap to what it could be.
“We just attributed it to starting nursery and the time of year. She then had bronchiolitis and that takes a bit of time to clear out anyway. It was just taking a bit too long to clear, and her energy was low and quite lethargic, so eventually the GP had an inclination that it might be something more.
“She had some blood tests at A&E, and then she got the diagnosis. That moment is seared into my mind – it’s a very dark moment. Your mind naturally jumps to the worst.”
Beatrice underwent four rounds of intense chemotherapy to stop any rapid progression of the leukemia. Oliver said: “We were in and out of GOSH for five or six months.
“It got progressively shorter – the first stint in hospital was six weeks, home for a week, then back in for four weeks, home for 10 days, and so on. The first round was the most intense, but as the rounds went on, her energy returned.”
To support GOSH and the team that helped Beatrice, Oliver will be running the London Marathon to raise money for the GOSH Charity.
He said: “We are eternally grateful, GOSH will forever have a place in our hearts. Particularly, the nursing and medical and wider team on Elephant Ward were just amazing – genuinely, genuinely amazing.
“The play therapists and physio therapists spending time with her was great too. We want to do everything we can to pay it forward, because we know that we were the recipients of so much support. I think we’ll forever be indebted to GOSH and will always try to fundraise and help in any way we can.”
Money raised by Team GOSH at the London Marathon will help GOSH Charity fund vital family support, research and medical equipment to give seriously ill children the best chance and childhood possible. To find out more, visit gosh.org. You can support Oliver’s fundraiser here.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.