How a young cancer patient's positivity is making a difference to teenage sufferers

  • Video report by ITV News Reporter Alex Iszatt

A brave young teenager with bone cancer is refusing to let her condition get her or others down.

Cerys Davies, 14, was just 13 when she was told a pain in her knee was osteosarcoma and had to have her lower leg amputated.

Last month she spent her first Christmas receiving treatment and, despite nearing the end of her therapy, plans to continue reaching out to others facing similar struggles to her.

“I was quite upset at first but then I just said this is the life I have to live this is what I’ve got to do and I’ve just got to get through it,” she told ITV News from the Teenage Cancer Trust at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

“When people have just come in and I don’t know them I’ll try and break the ice with something. It’s nice to see someone to go talk to you if they have been through it.”

Cerys Davies remains positive despite her diagnosis.

Her positivity in the ward has been infectious and helped newcomers get to grips with their treatment and figure out how to live with their condition.

Ella-Rose Richards and Isaac Brookes, who have cancer and a brain tumour respectively, both spoke highly of Cerys’ impact on them.

Ella-Rose said: “Being told you have cancer is pretty daunting, I was really scared to be honest.

“The first person I talked to was Cerys and she explained to me about having a central line and all the chemo and that really helped because I had no clue when I arrived.”

Cerys says she looks out for newcomers and tries to 'break the ice' with them.

Cerys says she just wants to help as many people as she can and draws from her own experience of finding out she had cancer in December 2018.

"I called my best friend and we both cried on the phone. Then I said to my dad; 'I will beat this anyway’,” she recalled.

“I didn't want to tell people at school until I got my head around it.

“I was on crutches and was bullied a lot. Some girls said I was faking it to get the attention of the boys, and some boys would take my crutches and hide them.

“If I ever walked without them, they would say: 'It's a miracle, she can walk'. I decided to do a school assembly to tell people and my dad and I did a presentation about the type of cancer I had.”

Cerys says she has given a presentation at school to explain her condition.

It’s Cerys’ patience and care for others that has made her actively seek out others to help – and even nurses have looked to her to help other patients.

“I try to look on the positive side and one upside of having cancer is that I have made some friends that I wouldn't have made otherwise,” she said.

“I like to help other young people who are struggling with their experiences. The nurses knew that a girl who had just been diagnosed was having a really hard time.

“A nurse asked me if I minded going in and saying hello to her. I wanted to help because I'd heard her crying a lot and knew she wouldn't even leave her room.

“I went in to chat with her and ended up staying for two hours.”

Cerys is backing charity Teenage Cancer Trust’s festive fundraising campaign. To donate and support young people with cancer visit www.teenagecancertrust.org/christmas.