Worcestershire football fan father in charity walk for daughter

Football fans will set off on a charity walk to help fund the kind of cancer treatment received by Bella (centre)

A man whose daughter developed leukaemia is among 30 football fans doing a charity walk between stadiums.

Eleven-year-old Bella was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in August 2021 after doctors initially thought she had a viral infection.

Her family said she was currently in remission having undergone special treatment.

Dad Tom is hoping the walk from Kidderminster Harriers to Solihull Moors FC will support similar care.

The walkers undertaking the 32-mile (51.5km) feat are supporters of the Worcestershire club and hope to raise more than £10,000 for national blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia.

Bella has recently received her third negative bone marrow results, the family reports

The group sets off from the Aggborough Stadium in Kidderminster at 05:30 GMT.

Walkers are aiming to reach Solihull Moors at about 17:00 GMT.

Money raised is to be invested in potentially life-saving blood cancer clinical trials that give patients access to treatments not currently available through standard care.

After her diagnosis, Bella was treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital where she began a four-month course of chemotherapy which was not successful.

Her father told BBC Hereford & Worcester they managed to get her a drug from the US which shrank the mass on her chest, but she also needed a stem cell transplant, which also failed.

They were given a lifeline by a doctor at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital who put her on a special clinical trial which did, Tom said, successfully treat her condition.

Now in remission, Bella has received her third negative bone marrow result, according to the family.

"There were a number of complications along the way and we spent several periods in critical care because of seizures she experienced throughout the treatment, but she pulled through," Tom said.

The team hopes to raise in excess of £10,000 to help fund clinical trials