A young girl’s legacy: pioneering blood test can monitor rare childhood cancer

Charity launched in name of Alice Wakeling funds breakthrough that could lead to less aggressive treatment and save more lives

Alice Wakeling was three when a lump began to grow on her neck. Doctors were initially puzzled but, after six weeks of tests, consultants gave her parents, David and Sara, the devastating news. Alice had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer that develops in muscle or fibrous tissue.

For the next four years, Alice went through gruelling bouts of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. For a brief period, it looked as if she was free from her cancer. But it returned, and Alice died in October 2019. She was seven.