My Story: Alice - Overcoming All Obstacles is a new documentary that follows the story of 10-year-old Alice, a sporty girl from Dublin who recently survived an aggressive cancer diagnosis and now plans to take on the Hell & Back Jr obstacle course.
Ahead of the episode airing, we spoke with Alice's mum, Norah, to find out more about the documentary and how life has been for the family since her diagnosis in 2022.
"We're two and a bit years into this 'journey' as I like to call it," says Norah. "Although it's more of a nightmare."
In April 2022, a then eight-year-old Alice was diagnosed with a stage four fully metastatic disease - something that came as a total shock to both the family and medical professionals.
"It was a very late diagnosis," Norah says, explaining that she felt that her concerns surrounding Alice's energy levels were often brushed off.
"Unfortunately, it was just one piece of bad news after the next," she says. "I think maybe it was a surprise to them as well. When she was diagnosed with a stage four, high risk neuroblastoma MYCN amplified - which means it's really aggressive."
Alice was referred to as a "unique outlier" and, at the time, the prognosis was not looking positive.
"The prognosis was very grim, but, honestly, from the get-go we said 'you don't know her, you don't know what she's made of'. She's made of stronger stuff. We knew she had it in her to fight so we just really rallied."
As soon as the diagnosis was made, an incredible network of family, friends, and volunteer support groups stepped in to help.
And although Norah praised the "fabulous" nurses in Crumlin for their incredible care, it soon became apparent that this rare disease would need treatment from further afield.
While dad, Dylan, stayed home with daughter, Laragh, Norah and Alice headed for Barcelona to undergo two drug trials and a tumor resection.
"Once we left for Barcelona, the whole community stepped up," Norah insists. "They knew that the next step would have to be a trip to America where they were conducting a pediatric cancer vaccine trial. This is what we were trying to save all our resources for, and the community fundraised to send her to America."
"The Gavin Glynn Foundation were unbelievable, but honestly you could pull up a list of all these smaller charities that are stepping in."
A natural athlete (running, swimming, horse riding, and hockey were all on the agenda), Alice struggled to cope with being cooped up indoors away from her friends and loved ones.
Incredibly, though, she found great pride in being able to trial these potentially life-saving drugs for Irish children going forward: "She used to say 'if I trial these drugs, mum, and they're approved, then the other Irish kids won't have to leave'."
She also worked hard to be an advocate for both herself and other patients her age, speaking with medical staff about the importance of having choice, for example, she personally preferred a port to a central line as a drug delivery system as it gave her the freedom to move around more easily.
"I'm just so unbelievably in awe of her," says Norah. "I don't know where she gets it, she's built of such strong stuff. She's meant for so much."
Now that Alice has been cleared of disease (this particular type of cancer takes years before being considered in remission), she wants to take part in the Hell and Back Jr obstacle course and get back to living fully.
"That's just Alice," Norah laughs. "She's such a positive and energetic child. She always sets herself targets, no matter what. She's a very active and focused child."
"As a parent, you're just following her lead," she continues. "People say children are resilient and I get that in a lot of ways, but I also think it's just a will to live. The toxicity of the treatment will have life-long ramifications, but I think she just has such a will to live that pushes her on. She just wants her life back."
My Story: Alice - Overcoming All Obstacles airs on Friday, June 14, on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player at 4pm.
