At just three and a half years old, Wyatt was experiencing sneezing, coughing, fevers, ear pain and a rash. After countless trips to the doctors to establish what was wrong, Jess' world was turned upside down when she finally got the answer: her son, Wyatt, has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. 

For Jess, the shock of diagnosis was only the beginning. What followed was the reality of childhood leukaemia treatment: not just chemotherapy, hospital stays and appointments, but constant monitoring to understand whether the treatment was working.

"Bone marrow aspirates are one of the most confronting parts. To get the clearest picture of whether leukaemia cells are still hiding in the body, doctors need to go right into the bone, usually the hip, with a needle, under general anaesthetic.

Every single time, you're handing your child over. Every single time, there's the anxiety of waiting for them to go under, watching them come around, and then the days of waiting for results.

Every general anaesthetic has been a weight I carry as Wyatt's mum. You never take it lightly. And when you're facing it repeatedly, not once, not twice, but over and over throughout treatment, it becomes its own kind of trauma layered on top of everything else." - Jess.

One researcher. One grant.
The potential to change everything for children like Wyatt.

Dr Narges Bayat's research project is developing an innovative, minimally invasive imaging tool to detect residual leukaemia cells in the bone marrow.

By combining advanced magnetic particle imaging with targeted nanoparticles, Dr Bayat hopes to make it possible to visualise individual cancer cells and monitor treatment response in a new way. 

If successful, this research could help transform how childhood leukaemia is monitored. It could lead to earlier detection of residual disease, reduce reliance on repeated invasive bone marrow procedures, and support the development of more effective treatments for children at highest risk. 

Dr Bayat's research is being funded thanks to people like you. Your donation today could support more incredible break-throughs in research.

Help change someone's life - someone like Wyatt - by donating today.

"To think that researchers like Dr Bayat are working toward a future where a simple blood test could replace all of that, where families wouldn't have to go through those procedures again and again, is extraordinary.

For so many children and their families, that would be genuinely life changing. That's the kind of research that doesn't just save lives. It changes what living through treatment actually feels like." - Jess