In Los Angeles pop star Taylor Swift has released her single ‘Ronan’ in memory of a little boy who died of Neuroblastoma. At the same time in the UK Dean and Sarah Gough have written "Recipes For Life - Fighting Back With Food". They want to try and raise awareness of Neuroblastoma and all proceeds will go straight to The Alfie Gough Trust, set up in memory of their son (www.alfiestrust.com).
Several celebrities have pledged their support already, including Chef Gary Rhodes OBE donating his Leek & Potato Soup to the cookbook. Each recipe was researched thoroughly and used as part of a nutritional diet, which Dean and Sarah believe improved Alfie's quality of life during his treatment.
As Dr Stergios Zacharoulis, Paediatric Oncology Consultant at the Royal Marsden explains, “Some neuroblastomas will go away without any treatment (especially in very young infants), and others can be cured by surgery alone (especially if in the early stages). Large tumours that have not spread to other parts of the body (metastases),and tumours that are found not to be “aggressive” biologically, can be highly curable with only 4-8 cycles of chemotherapy and surgery.” However he goes on to say how, “Unfortunately a significant number of patients with advanced disease at diagnosis experience re-growth of their tumour which is associated with a very poor prognosis. Patients with relapsed neuroblastoma are usually enrolled in available clinical trials or treated with novel chemotherapeutic/biological combination therapies.”
