9:10pm Monday 9th March 2009
By Claire Lomax
A five-year-old girl who has endured a year of gruelling treatment for a rare bone cancer, is the inspiration for a charity fundraising walk.
The Ewings Walk, which is to be up to 100km in laps around Swinsty and Fewston reservoirs, near Harrogate, will hopefully raise £10,000 for six charities who supported little Triya Mistry and her family, of Glenholme Park, Clayton, during the ordeal.
The walk takes its name from the bone cancer Ewings Sarcoma which Triya was diagnosed with at the age of four.
The idea for the event was dreamed up by her father Pankaj Mistry during sleepless nights he spent at her bedside.
He also hopes to raise awareness of the rare cancer, often dismissed by doctors as growing pain.
Mr Mistry said Triya suffered four months of pain in her leg before finally being diagnosed.
He said: “She used to cry herself to sleep, she lost her appetite and was pale. We even consulted a private doctor but everyone said it was growing pains.”
It was after a playground fall last April, which resulted in a trip to the A&E department at Bradford Royal Infirmary, that the family’s life was turned upside down.
Her thigh was swollen, and after X-rays doctors said it could be a tumour.
Mr Mistry said: “The next 17 days were the most dreadful in going for tests, scans, X-rays and finally surgery for a biopsy at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham.
“It was then confirmed that Triya had Primary Bone Cancer of her right thigh; the name of the cancer was Ewing’s Sarcoma.
“Since then our lives, all of us including her eight-year-old brother Kishan, have revolved around hospitals.
“Our time was consumed in Triya’s chemotherapy treatment, blood transfusions, antibiotics, scans, blood tests, heart tests, limb sparing surgery, physiotherapy, stem cell harvest, bone marrow biopsy and so on.”
Mr Mistry said despite her ordeal his daughter remained positive and was now back at her school, St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School in Bradford Road, Clayton.
“The treatment has gone as expected and they are confident that what was in her body is dead,” said Mr Mistry.
“If we can get through the next five years she has an 80 per cent chance of leading a normal life.”
The family now wants to give something to the charity’s which supported, through time, money or information.
The walk starts at 9am from Fewston Reservoir car park on Saturday, April 4, with a mystery celebrity starting the walkers off.
The charities which will benefit are: Cancer Backup, the Bone Cancer Research Trust, Candlelighters, Clic Sargent, the Sick Children’s Trust and the Royal Orthopaedic Bone Tumour Service.
For information on it, the charities and how to volunteer to help visit ewingswalk.com.
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