Meet the amazing girl, 7, who is helping a sick toddler with cancer
A little girl whose leukaemia battle touched Princess Kate’s heart is helping a toddler in his own fight with cancer.
Mila Sneddon, seven, and her family are supporting 18-month-old Robin Samuel. The lad’s parents are trying to fund treatment in Spain which could vastly improve his long term chances of survival. Robin is in remission but there is a high risk his aggressive form of neuroblastoma will return. Before he flew with his parents to Barcelona this week ahead of treatment, he had a video call with Mila.
She told him: “I hope we can raise a lot of money for you. I’m thinking about you and cheering for you.” Princess Kate asked to meet Mila after seeing a photo of her gazing at her dad through a window while isolating as she underwent chemo during lockdown in 2020. Kate and Mila met twice in 2021.
Mila, from Falkirk, was a Daily Record Pride of Scotland Awards winner in 2022. Robin’s parents Rachel and Nick discovered in January that their son was being attacked by a 4in tumour. Nick, 39, said: “He was so small, this thing was about half the size of him.” The cancer had spread to Robin’s abdomen, pelvis and spine and he immediately began chemo. His long term survival chances are roughly 50%.
Mila meets Princess Kate (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)Rachel and Nick, from Muswell Hill, North London, said the immunotherapy treatment in Spain could increase that to 95%. The treatment is available on the NHS, but the rules say Robin would firstly need to have a further high dose chemo regime. His parents said this could pose serious risks.
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They say risks brought with eight-weeks of the chemotherapy with stem cell transplants would include risks such as seizures, fatal infection and fatal liver complications. Long term, they say he would almost certainly be infertile, get a secondary cancer such as leukaemia, be deaf or have hearing problems, and have permanent heart, lung and thyroid issues.
It is understood the only option in Europe without the need for the high dose chemotherapy is the Sant Joan de Deu hospital in Barcelona. “This particular cancer will come back unless we get this treatment,” said Rachel. “We need this treatment so that it will not only save his life now but preserve it in the future.”
Robin with his parents (David Dyson)Mila, speaking from the family car after a hospital visit for blood tests, told Robin how she had recently returned from Disneyland and that Goofy was her favourite character. For Mila and Robin, their short lives have been blighted by the traumas of their illness. Rachel said as the call finished: “Let’s stay in touch and, maybe one day - we can all go to Disneyland together.”
The family are about halfway to their fundraising target of £300,000. The first of five monthly treatments is due on September 25. To donate visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-baby-robin-survive-cancer
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