Ripleys Story
The day our lives first changed forever…
In January 2015 we became parents to Ripley Olive Corless late one evening in Epsom. Ripley was a healthy and (mostly) happy baby and the first child and grandchild for all our family.
When Ripley was 12 weeks old we moved to Bristol to the house where we planned to watch our beautiful daughter grow up. As a baby and toddler Ripley loved going to Gymboree and Waterbabies with her daddy each week and as well as various trips with the whole family to some of Bristol’s local attractions.
From an early age, we were able to see Ripley’s stubbornness and determination to do things her own way, but also a kindness and compassion beyond her small years. Ripley loved reading and learning and would sit for hours on your lap listening to story and after story and her imaginative play was quite spectacular.
Then Ripley became unwell
On Friday 13th January 2017 Ripley became unwell in the evening. She had been quiet and lethargic all day and a bit out of sorts at nursery the day before, but still joining in with her usual activities. On the evening of the 13th, she was running a small temperature and her heart rate and breathing rate was quite high. We gave her Calpol and a bath and got her ready for bed, when we checked on her again in 20 minutes there had been no change in temperature and her pulse had got considerably faster so we called 111 and took her to the out of hours GP.
Ripley remained quiet but awake through the whole process, just cuddling into mummy and sitting on her lap. She let the doctor check her over with no fuss. He was concerned as he couldn’t get accurate oxygen reading on her (they didn’t have paediatric machines) so he called for an ambulance to take us to the children’s hospital and gave her oxygen as a precaution whilst we waited.
The ambulance arrived and turned on the blue lights to take us to the children’s hospital. She needed oxygen in the ambulance as her levels dropped down to 80. When we arrived the doctors and nurses tried to take blood for tests to find out what was wrong but were having difficulties getting her blood. Ripley stayed awake the whole night refusing to sleep.
News to yet again change our lives forever
Around 6am the following morning we were given the news that would once more change our lives forever.
Ripley had Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
Ripley's white blood cell counts were one of the highest they had ever seen and over 100 times what it was supposed to be. Ripley still fighting to stay awake, and at this point fighting to stay alive, was taken immediately to surgery so they could fit her with the relevant lines for treatment to begin.
The doctors told us to prepare ourselves for the worst as they did not think she would survive the weekend. She was too poorly for them to begin chemotherapy and once she was out of surgery they took her to Paediatric Intensive Care (PICU) to begin apheresis to thin her blood so that the chemotherapy treatment could begin.
The battle to save Ripley
Over the next weeks, Ripley gradually got better and was able to move to Ward 34 (the Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant Ward). She celebrated her second birthday on ward 34 and the nurses were amazing in helping her celebrate and making the day as normal as possible. She began chemotherapy and the doctors did various tests to find out what type of Leukaemia she had and the most effective course of treatment.
Ripley had an FLT3 variation to her acute myeloid leukaemia which meant she was high risk. This along with the fact that she didn’t respond to her first round of chemotherapy meant that she would go straight for bone marrow transplant. As Ripley was an only child we would be seeking an unrelated match for a stem cell donor.
There were lots of hurdles that we needed to get through before Ripley could get as far as transplant. Her next course of chemotherapy needed to work and get cancer into remission. We needed to find a suitable donor and get the blood counts to the right levels in the preparation of chemotherapy to be able to give the transplant if a stem cell donor was found.
All these pieces came together and Ripley received her stem cell transplant from a cord donation in April 2017. She spent time in isolation in her hospital room following this to prevent the risk of infection. Her transplant went better than could be expected, she had none of the expected side effects from the transplant and was well enough to come home in May 2017.
We spent the summer of 2017 backwards and forwards to the hospital for regular checks several times a week on day beds in between trying to entertain a toddler that was still at high risk of infection and so not able to go to soft play, swimming or be around animals at the farm/zoo. Ripley’s favourite activities became throwing a penny in the fountain at Cribbs Causeway and visiting the toy shop.
The news we’d been dreading…
Sadly in September 2017, we were given the news that Ripley’s cancer had come back. We knew that so soon after her transplant her chances of surviving were very slim and we had very limited treatment options. The doctors did more tests and patiently talked us through each of our options and as a family we decided on palliative care at Charlton Farm Children’s Hospice was the best decision for Ripley.
We had several weeks with Ripley at the hospice where we were able to have a family holiday to CBeebies Land, as well as being able to enjoy the sandpit and soft play every day with Ripley at Charlton Farm.
We were lucky and Ripley stayed her usual cheeky and playful self until the very end and experienced very little pain. Ripley passed away peacefully with her family by her side.
Ripleys Legacy
It was Ripley’s stubbornness and determination that let her fight her cancer as long as she did and gave us those precious extra 9 months with her from diagnosis and defied the odds the doctors gave her that first night in January.
It was her kindness and compassion that helped us to get through the difficult times during treatment and give us the strength now to keep going without her.
Ripley had a positive impact on the lives of everyone she met and was a kind and empathetic little girl who didn’t like to see anyone else sad or in pain.
We have set up Ripples of Compassion in her memory so she can continue to help others and her kindness and compassion can spread a little hope and light into the world.
Starborn
The poem written by Ripples of Compassion’s founder Fiona, in memory of her daughter, Ripley