A mother is desperately trying to raise £625,000 to save her two-year-old daughter after doctors said her cancer is now terminal. Alicia Rickman says her daughter Betty looks so healthy that strangers would have no idea she is seriously ill.
The toddler was diagnosed with neuroblastoma last July and following gruelling treatment, more cancer was spotted in February – this time in the fluid surrounding her brain. Now, her family are racing against time to fund potentially life-saving treatment abroad.
Mother's disbelief at terminal diagnosis
“I’m so frightened about losing her,” said Alicia, a GP receptionist from Totton, Hampshire. “When I heard the word ‘terminal’, I was in disbelief. She’s so well in herself that I just couldn’t believe that decision had been made whilst she’s so full of life.
“As her mum, knowing that her short life has been taken up by illness and treatment is horrific. Every time we think she’s effectively cancer free, another scan shows there is cancer.”
Alicia first became concerned in June 2025 when Betty developed a temperature that lasted for 10 days. Betty stopped eating and drinking, became very pale and sleepy and was noticeably less energetic. Her nursery also told Alicia she was not herself.
Long road to diagnosis
At first, her mum thought she might have a UTI. Alicia said: “They put it down to something viral as she went to nursery. We then took her back a second time where we were told she had an ear infection and was treated with five days of antibiotics.
“The temperatures returned within 24 hours and it was a doctor at my workplace who said that by that point a paediatric doctor should look her over. So I took her back for a third time where I was told it was again just her slowly getting over this infection.
“24 hours later I took her to an urgent treatment centre who basically said as I’d already been to the GP three times that meant I needed to go to Southampton to be checked there.”
Alicia said a triage nurse immediately seemed to realise something was seriously wrong. Doctors carried out blood tests and later told Alicia that Betty's blood levels were dangerously low and could indicate cancer.
Treatment and setbacks
Alicia said: “I asked to see the scans because I couldn’t fathom it. She was completely non-symptomatic, everyone was saying how well she looked and how well her speech and development was going despite everything going on.”
She underwent eight rounds of rapid chemotherapy, further chemotherapy and immunotherapy, stem cell harvesting, surgery and 12 sessions of radiotherapy to her brain, spine and abdomen. Her abdominal tumour then haemorrhaged in July 2025, causing a massive bleed which almost killed her.
Alicia said: “It all happened so fast. One minute she was sat up watching nursery rhymes in the hospital, the next minute she was on a ventilator. It didn’t feel real.”
She spent time in intensive care, where doctors intervened to stop the bleeding. Despite everything, Alicia says a scan of Betty’s body came back as clear of neuroblastoma active cells. But in July this year, scans found that the cancer had progressed as leptomeningeal disease – affecting the fluid surrounding her brain, right knee, diaphragm and bone marrow.
Fundraising for treatment abroad
The largest area in the brain fluid was around 5mm. Doctors have now told the family that Betty's prognosis is terminal and that they no longer believe they can cure her with the treatment available through the NHS.
But Alicia and her partner, Betty's dad, Kelvin Gale, 33, refuse to give up. They are trying to raise £625,000 to take their daughter to SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital in Spain, a treatment they found in a Facebook support group.
There, Alicia says Betty could receive a treatment known as RIST alongside immunotherapy and continue taking lorlatinib, which targets an ALK mutation she carries. The family needs to raise the money as quickly as possible. Alicia said: “Her diagnosis is terminal, the NHS is giving her treatment for stability for however long that lasts.
“We want to get her into remission and cured. Raising the money would mean everything. It would be a chance for my daughter to live. It feels so wrong we’re putting a price on that.”
Alicia and Kelvin are pleading for help to reach their £625,000 target and have set up a fundraiser, which has currently raised £16,000. Despite everything, Betty remains a bubbly and loving toddler.
Alicia said: “She’s is the most fun loving, kind and funny kid I’ve ever known. She loves Bluey, Peppa Pig and Miss Rachel. Betty just loves the world so much, she cares so deeply for everything and everyone. She knows that she has to have medicine, we call it wiggle juice, but there is a play room on the ward with the most incredible play specialist and hand on heart it is an absolute life line for these children.
“Although she’s been incredibly resilient the entire time, there have been moments that I can’t put into words. Seeing families not have the outcome they should have had is heartbreaking. You make friends with other parents while all going through the worst possible time of our lives and when they don’t have the outcome they should have had, it honestly breaks us all.
“Betty’s strength, determination and her smile, she is the reason I wake up in the morning and keep fighting. She was my miracle and I hope with all my heart she carries on with that same strength.”
