Triya's Story

Hi my name is Pankaj Mistry. I am married to Meena and we have 2 children, Kishan our son who is 8 and our daughter Triya who is 5. On the 1st April 2008 our world was turned upside down. We had taken Triya to the Bradford Royal Infirmary A&E to have her right leg checked after a playground fall.

After X-rays and couple of hours waiting we were quickly huddled into a room and to our shock a Consultant advised us that Triya could have a tumour in her leg. I cannot describe in words what we were feeling, my wife looked at me for some assurance and I was in disbelief and anguish; my little princess could have cancer. The next 17 days were the most dreadful in going for tests, scans, X-rays and finally surgery for a biopsy at the Royal Orthapaedic Hospital in Birmingham. It was then confirmed that Triya had Primary Bone Cancer of her right thigh; the name of the cancer was Ewing's Sarcoma.

From then on life had one meaning only…fight this disease and see our daughter through this dreadful nightmare. Since then our lives (all of us including her brother Kishan) have revolved around hospitals, our time consumed in Triya's Chemotherapy treatment, Blood Transfusions, Antibiotics, Scans, Blood Tests, Heart Tests, Limb Sparing Surgery, Physiotherapy, Stem Cell Harvest, Bone Marrow Biopsy and so on and so on...

What we have learned is that Primary Bone Cancers are rare. It is an aggressive disease and affects a great deal of children normally in their teens. But as we have seen it can even be found in a very young child, Triya was only 4 years old. There is no understanding of what causes the cells to become cancerous and develop the tumour.

Any child affected by this cancer will face Chemotherapy, even Radiotherapy and definitely surgery to remove the tumour which can lead to the total removal of the bone/tissue replaced with a prosthetic bone. In some cases it is necessary to amputate limbs. An effective treatment for Ewings was only developed in the last 30 years…makes you wonder what happened to the children who had it before that time.

When you enter this world you realise that you need answers to lots of questions, you need to validate what the medical professionals tell you, you end up reading horror stories or misleading information on the net, you just need facts not opinions, you need help and guidance, what do these medical terms mean, how will these drugs affect my child, will I get any support, what will happen to my job, what are my rights for time off work. What about schooling, how will I cope?

This is where the charitable organisations came in and helped. We would like to ask you to please support this event.