Sevenoaks: Charity in memory of girl, 7, donates £1m for cancer research

Alice Wakeling was only seven when she died

A charity set up in the name of a seven-year-old girl who died of cancer has donated £1m towards research into the disease.

Alice Wakeling, of Sevenoaks, died of rhabdomysarcoma in October 2019, after being diagnosed at the age of three.

The funds have been raised by Alice's Arc, set up to ultimately find a cure for rhabdomyosarcoma.

It will help research groups, including the Institute of Cancer Research, find targeted and less harsh treatments.

Alice's parents have raised millions in her name for medical research

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a soft tissue cancer which mainly affects children under the age of 10.

"Alice had a very aggressive type, known as a fusion positive type," her mother Sara Wakeling told BBC South East.

"You get to a point where there are no treatment options left. She'd exhausted the options - extensive chemotherapy, surgery, brachytherapy, proton radiation.

"That is just an unspeakable situation to find yourself in, to watch your child powerless."

Alice was a talented chess player

During her short life, Alice proved to be a talented chess player.

Her father David said: "One of my favourite things was taking her to chess competitions, playing brilliantly and winning some, losing some, but always with good spirits."

Scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research say the £1m will be used to fund research into how cancer cells manage to adapt to resist treatment.

Mrs Wakeling said: "We just wish that something like that had been available for Alice, something like that needs to be available, it's urgent."

Alice's Arc has raised a total of £3.5m for research into childhood cancers, with money also going to the University of Birmingham, the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and the University of York.

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