Friends thank Great North Children's Hospital for saving little girl's life after neuroblastoma diagnosis

A group of friends are hitting the road to say thank you to the hospital staff who have saved a little girl's life.

Rosa Adam was diagnosed with childhood cancer neuroblastoma in 2021, when she was just three-years-old.

She underwent treatment and was given the all-clear - but in January of this year came the news mum Lauren Welsh was dreading.

"When she was three, the tumour ruptured her pancreas," said Lauren, 32, from Hall Farm.

"It was removed and she was good for a year-and-a-half, but then she was having stomach pains so I took her straight to the RVI.

"They said because of her history they would scan her. The man who was doing the scan was having a nice chat - then he just stopped. That's when I knew it had come back,"

The scan revealed two tumours and Rosa underwent surgery. She is now receiving chemotherapy and will travel to Manchester later this year to under go proton treatment.

When Rosa was losing her trademark ginger locks , Lauren would tell her stories about the ginger hair fairy, who took her hair away to make wigs for other poorly children.

Now a group of Lauren's old classmates from St Anthony's are joining forces for a ginger hair fairy sponsored walk to raise funds for the RVI's Great North Children's Hospital as a thank you for the care Rosa has received.

"There are just so many things there for the children to do, so many things for them to get involved with," said Lauren.

"There is a guy from St James's Park who comes, there are people who come in with pots of paint, there is even a teacher there - and the staff are so nice,"

Ruth Pownall, from Seaham. is one of the friends taking part: "This is our way of giving something back to the hospital," she said .

"When you think about all the great work that it does, it is amazing. "

On Saturday, July 8, the group will don their ginger hair fairy costumes and walk the 14 miles from Nose's Point in Seaham to South Shields.

"We aimed to raise £1,000 but the Hair Fairy Walk Go Fund Me page has already topped £3,000, so we have smashed it," said organiser Steph Liddle.

"We want to thank everybody who has been involved."