Toddler’s fight against brain cancer inspires £5m funding drive

PA 212/09 It might seem like a routine family bathtime — a toddler complaining about having her hair washed, her twin sister looking on bemused. But for the Finn family this was a landmark event, and one to be savoured. This was the first time their two-year-old daughter had needed her hair washing. For most of her short life Liberty Rose has been treated with chemotherapy to treat cancer, and her hair has only just begun to grow. When Libby was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour aged just eight months old, her parents, Carl and Dawn Finn, were devastated. Their daughter had been born with an optic glioma — a type of cancer that is labelled 'benign', but if allowed to grow unchecked can cause serious and irreparable damage to vision. Libby has received expert treatment and care at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) and at The University of Nottingham's Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre.