Girl, 12, says 'cancer picked wrong girl' as she raises funds during treatment
A 12-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with a rare brain tumour says "cancer picked the wrong girl" as she takes on huge fundraising challenge while going through treatment,
Maya, 12, was diagnosed with Craniopharyngioma - a rare tumour that mainly affects children and young people - in June this year, her mum Mahta Mohseni has said. The youngster is unable to have surgery to remove the tumour because of its position so is instead is undergoing radiotherapy. Despite going through the gruelling treatment and attending school, Maya is planning to run 100km in a month to raise money for charity Young Lives vs Cancer.
Maya said: "As common side effects while having such treatment, I'm feeling very tired and also having many headaches and nausea. However, I believe that strong is the new beautiful. That is why I am determined to run 100 km while doing my 28 days of radiotherapy treatment. Cancer, you picked the wrong girl."
Maya Tohid, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, was first diagnosed with migraines when she was just nine. But the year eight pupil suffered a migraine in April this year that lasted five weeks. Eventually she started throwing up every day for five days. Mum Mahta and her husband Reza Tohid, 46, took their daughter to A&E three times to find out what was wrong - but doctors kept saying she just had a migraine.
Maya in hospital (Mahta Mohseni / SWNS)
During treatment (Mahta Mohseni / SWNS)Maya then had a MRI scan which revealed she actually had a 3.5cm x 2.8cm x 2.3cm brain tumour - which left Mahta and Reza stunned. Mahta, an engineer in the gas and oil industry, said: "I can't describe how it was finding out - it felt like we was in a cloud. At first you don't know what the brain tumour actually is, so you start reading about it and the problems they will face more and more and it stresses you out.
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"It just kills you, I couldn't go to work, concentrate or sleep. But Maya needs to be strong and all of us need to be strong." Maya is currently going through her treatment at the Christie Hospital's proton beam therapy centre in Manchester. Mum-of-two Mahta said: "The treatment can make her extremely tired. We didn't expect the treatment to make her tired from day one so we was quite shocked at first. She has been really sick as well but they have given her some tablets to take to help with that.
"The biggest thing for Maya is the tiredness and she really needs extra sleep. She's going to school at normal as well because she loves it, so she's having all her radiotherapy appointments in the later afternoon." Mahta has paid tribute to her daughter, saying she's 'really proud' of how positive the year eight student has been throughout her cancer battle.
Maya with her family (Mahta Mohseni / SWNS)
Maya with a mask she's wearing for radiotherapy treatment (Mahta Mohseni / SWNS)She also added that she's feels 'happy' that Maya has turned something negative into something positive, by running for the charity. Mahta said: "I'm really proud of her because she's so positive. She's so determined to beat this illness, she just wants her normal life back. She's always been really good at school and always tries her best. But now I feel sad because she can't do that, because she's tired and sometimes she feels so ill.
"I'm happy that she has taken something negative and is trying to do something positive from it. She doesn't want this illness to beat her. I think she's so strong that she will beat it."
You can sponsor Maya here.
* This article was crafted with the help of an AI tool, which speeds up The Mirror's editorial research. An editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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