Isabelle celebrates in Dreams & Wishes garden

24/07/2024

When her daughter was going through gruelling treatment for cancer, Lisa Elsey would often spend time in the Dreams & Wishes garden to "collect her thoughts". It was a place where she was able to gather the strength needed to support her daughter through the journey no parent wants to see their child on.

So, it was fitting that when Isabelle got to ring the bell after three years of almost constant hospital treatment, they came to our Celebration of Life garden in the sunshine to celebrate with friends and family.

Watching Isabelle running around, playing hide and seek with her schoolfriends with the biggest smile on her face was a moment Lisa and husband Adrian feared they would never see.  The Celebration of Life garden in Heath Park has got a bear theme and even looks like a giant teddy bear from the sky.

The peaceful area of Heath Park stands just a stone's throw from Wales' largest hospital and has the aim of giving families whose children are having hospital treatment a place to get away for a time. There is a picnic area and a bear trail for the children to enjoy.

A fitting place for Isabelle's party. She was only seven when doctors realised that the aches she was feeling in her legs were not growing pains.

 

It was November 2021, and her worried mum had taken her youngest daughter to the GP because the pains in her legs were not going away. The GP thought it might be growing pains, but as they continued it was decided to refer Isabelle to a consultant for further tests.

Mum Lisa says: "It was such a massive shock to us when she was diagnosed with leukemia because there were no other symptoms. Just the pains in her legs. Isabelle was like any other fit and well seven--year--old, so the diagnosis came like a bolt out of the blue for us."

The family were then thrust into a world of hospital stays, gruelling treatments and difficult decisions. Lisa says: "It was so hard. A real rollercoaster of emotions and ups and downs, and sometimes, when it all got a bit much I would walk over from the hospital to Heath Park next door and just gather my thoughts."

Isabelle has missed most of her primary school years because of the coronavirus pandemic and then all the hospital stays and treatments that were needed to beat the leukemia. 

"I am looking forward to being able to go to school all the time," she says. "It was been really nice to celebrate with my schoolfriends. I was really excited about ringing but the bell but my mum was quite emotional. We had a £5 bet on the way to the hospital that she would cry. She said she wouldn't, but she did so I won. I have loved coming over to the park afterwards to celebrate with my sisters, brother, family and friends."

"Dreams and Wishes have made a garden in a corner of the park near the hospital, so it felt fitting, a full circle, that when Isabelle finally got to ring the bell that we should come here to celebrate. We know that we are one of the lucky ones, and not everyone gets this but we wanted to make it a celebration with her schoolfriends, friends and family."