'My mission is to raise awareness of childhood cancers'

Eilish Flanagan is dedicated to raising awareness of childhood cancers and source funding for research

A mother whose three-year-old daughter died in her arms five days after she was diagnosed with germ cell cancer has founded a charity to raise awareness of the disease.

Eilish Flanagan, who now lives in Holton St Mary, Suffolk, started the charity called Aoife's Bubbles in 2019, the same year she lost her daughter.

Since it opened the charity has raised nearly £400,000 to help educate people about the symptoms, diagnosis and effects of the disease and fund research.

Ms Flanagan said that her pain is her power. Here, in her own words, she shares her story.

'Mummy, I feel really sick'

My little girl Aoife passed away five days after a cancer diagnosis in 2019.

She'd been back and forth to the GP in agony, in excess of ten times in the weeks leading up to her passing.

She was fatally misdiagnosed and I was labelled a paranoid mum.

She, in fact, had a type of childhood cancer called germ cell cancer and she was stage four when she was diagnosed and we had got to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

A simple blood test would have diagnosed her.

She had her first cycle of chemotherapy, which ended in the evening of 6 July.

It was the first night my partner had left the hospital and gone home to his son (my stepson). It was about 02:15 BST on 7 July and I just felt like something was wrong.

She stood up and she said, "Mummy, I feel really sick" and she passed away in my arms.

Aoife is an ancient name with Irish, Scottish and Gaelic origins that means beautiful and radiant

My pain is my power. I decided in that moment, if her life was never about negativity, it's certainly not going to be that in her death.

I'm really careful to not NHS bash.

I'm human, of course, and I do feel like humans should be held accountable for their errors. If you look deeper into [research around] childhood cancer in the NHS, it's underfunded and undereducated.

The only positive thing that can come with what happened to Aoife is education, so I knew I was going to start the charity immediately.

I know I can't stop [the disease] straight away, but my life's mission is to change the face of childhood cancer.

Aoife with Bubbles, her 14-year-old miniature Shetland pony who is now the charity's namesake and mascot

We do so much fundraising but all that goes in separate projects within the charity.

We raise awareness around childhood cancer, with the aim of changing diagnosis times.

Eighty percent of children are at stage four by the time they are diagnosed and that leaves limited treatment options and also a lot of suffering.

The charity provides joy and respite to children and their families affected by cancer.

We're currently fundraising for a beach hut so we can send children who are in treatment to the seaside for the day.

And we fund a childhood cancer specific research project with the Institute of Cancer Research.

It's just my passion. Emotionally it can be really tough, because I'm so invested into it, but I wouldn't not do it now.

Make a Difference Awards

Eilish Flanagan is one of four finalists in the BBC Radio Suffolk Make a Difference Awards 2024 in the fundraiser category.

The other finalists include:

Harli Dixon, 10, who raises money for St Elizabeth Hospice in Suffolk in memory of her mother, who died from cancer in 2022.

Simon Jay who runs quiz nights and golf events to support a variety of charities, including Inspire Suffolk, and has raised more than £350,000 so far.

LeeStock Music Festival, which runs each year in Long Melford, Suffolk, by a group of friends in memory of musician Lee Dunford, and raises money for the Willow Foundation.

The winners will be announced on 4 September at Trinity Park, Ipswich.