Miriam Cranfield

Our daughter Miriam had always had quite a big pot belly and we didn’t think much of it and thought it was cute. But when she was 18 months old I realised other children’s tummys were soft and not rock hard like hers. We assumed it was constipation but a GP referred us for an unltrasound a few weeks later, and it turned out Miriam’s kidneys were both absolutely enormous and around 4 times the size they were meant to be, filling up the whole of her insides and causing the big tummy. She was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms tumor and nephroblastomatosis and started chemotherapy within a few weeks. The large and hard tummy was her only symptom and she was otherwise really well, happy and active. After a year of intensive treatment and major kidney surgery, she is about to ring the end of cancer treatment bell. She’ll need close monitoring especially for the next 5 years and some side effects of treatment will remain for some time. I’d urge parents to get any unusual bumps or lumps in a child’s tummy checked out. It hasn’t occurred to me at all that Miriam would have anything serious, let alone cancer.