A 13-year-old girl suffering from terminal cancer is hoping to meet her pop star idol Lana Del Rey when she performs at Leeds Festival this weekend.
Laila Lo's ordeal began in 2020 when she began to complain about her aching leg. Her mum Melissa says doctors originally thought it was nothing but called back a week later to see if she was still experiencing pains. As Laila was, she was sent for an x-ray but everything was reported as clear.
However, Laila continued to feel ill and began to get progressively worse. She was unable to eat and started to lose weight then, one evening, her knee began to swell up. Laila was taken to A&E by her grandma, but was told to go to a GP.
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As Laila's condition worsened, Melissa demanded doctors do a full blood scan. These soon revealed there was something serious going on. She underwent an MRI scan and the family were then told they had found a tumour.
Melissa said: "I just said, 'has she got cancer?', and all I got was 'I'm so sorry'."
At first, Melissa was not told what type of cancer Laila had, she was just told she did not have Leukaemia. Melissa added: "We just went home overnight, really upset and confused. It just all happened at once, really, because we kept on being persistent with the doctor and we were always told she was fine. So it came as a bit of a shock."
Melissa was told Laila had some form of Ewing's, a type of bone cancer, and once the diagnosis came through the treatment soon began. Melissa said: "She actually had her first chemotherapy session on her 11th birthday, that was really sad.
"Laila has always been so strong, brave, resilient throughout all this and weirdly she's only ever cried once about having cancer. She's cried about having procedures done, but she's never once complained, she's just always got on with it."
She began chemotherapy in August 2022 and began undergoing the treatment which required her to be in hospital from Monday to Friday. Laila also had an operation to remove her femur and knee, replacing it with synthetic material which was heavier than the original bone, so Laila had to learn to walk again.
Laila also suffered nerve damage due to the size of the tumour, which was around 27 centimetres, and has lost all feeling in her leg and foot. In April the following year, Laila also suffered from intoxication due to the amount of chemotherapy she was receiving but, as it was the second to last session, the consultant decided to end the treatment and Laila was soon given the all-clear.
Melissa said: "Laila kind of started to get her life back slightly. Obviously, through chemotherapy and being poorly she missed all of starting year seven and secondary school, so she started going to school a couple of days a week, seeing her friends, it was great.
"We were planning for the future, we were planning to go back on holiday and do things like that. Throughout all the treatment, Laila really just listened to Lana Del Rey continuously.
"Now, for me, it just gives me PTSD because it just brings back all those memories of being in hospital, the journey to hospital and back, but it really touched Laila, she really resonated with the music, it really helped her.
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"I remember coming home for the weekend and she said 'Oh my God, mum. Lana Del Rey's playing in Brazil, please can we go?' and I said 'darling, you're having chemotherapy, I can't just take you to a different country'."
In the end, Meilssa promised to take Laila once all her treatments were done as she was still undergoing immunotherapy to try to prevent the cancer from returning up until October 2023. She underwent a scan in October which once again gave the all-clear, but she was still experiencing pain in her legs and so went for further scans. These revealed the cancer had returned.
Chemotherapy restarted for Laila, but this made her very ill and she had to undergo a number of blood transfusions. In January, she had another scan and this showed the tumour had not changed in size significantly and the cancer had already spread to her lungs. Laila was switched to palliative chemotherapy and doctors asked if Melissa just want to take Laila home to make some memories.
Melissa did so and has taken Laila on a number of trips to make precious memories with her.
Laila's condition has sadly gotten worse since then. Melissa said: "On Mother's Day, of all days, she got really bad pains again and we found out that the cancer was spreading up her leg and there was no other option really, that was it. It was just, trying to make her comfortable."
Melissa did research and found an experimental drug that might have helped Laila, and they were granted it under compassionate grounds, but a month ago she began to experience pains in her chest and several blood clots had formed in her lungs, caused by the medication, so Laila had to stop treatment.
There is very little that can be done for Laila now, but Melissa hopes to make one of her biggest dreams come true. As Laila is a massive Lana Del Rey fan, she hopes she might be able to meet her when she performs at Leeds Festival 2024.
Melissa said: "When we heard Lana Del Rey was playing in Leeds, its so close to our home, about an hour away, I thought 'oh my God this is amazing', I wanted to take her, especially with it being in August, her birthday was just on the 10th of August, she just turned 13.
"I was like, 'it's a sign', I can't take her abroad because, obviously, medical reasons, but she's playing so close to our hometown, it's in her birthday month, let's do it. So I spoke to a consultant about it and they were a bit like 'oh, well, you know, we don't know if she'll be here in August', so then that put us down, I was like 'oh God, I can't believe it'.
"But she's still here, she's doing well. Yes, she's still quite poorly, but she's still here and this is her dream and I really want to make it happen."
Laila would be happy to just see Lana Del Rey perform, and will be attending the festival in the disabled section, but her mum hopes to organise some kind of surprise for her. She has been in contact with Promise Dreams, a charity who work with seriously and terminally ill children to try to make their dreams come true.
Together, they have been working to get in contact with Lana Del Rey's team so Laila could receive some form of acknowledgement at the concert. Whether this took the form of a shout-out, or a meeting, or somewhere for Laila to sit close to the stage, or even a video message, it would make Laila incredibly happy.
Melissa said: "Do you know what, Laila is just so excited to be going, she's not expecting to meet Lana, but obviously Laila is not aware of how serious this is. I mean, she's 13, how do you tell a 13-year-old she's basically a ticking time bomb?
"Obviously she'd love to meet her, that's her absolute dream, but that's not what she's going for, she's going to listen to her music."
In addition, Lana Del Rey has helped Laila get close to her Catholic faith, which has been really important for her among the challenges of her cancer. The singer was raised Catholic, and Melissa said: "Seeing her idol being quite religious, it spurred Layla on.
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"Because obviously when something like this happens, you question yourself, you question 'why me?'. You know, 'if there is a God there, why has he done this to me?' but it's done the opposite to Laila, it's actually got her closer to her religion.
"She prays a lot and that is down to Lana because that's her idol and that's spurred her on and encouraged her to just think of all the positives. She has helped Laila without even knowing, it's really odd that a stranger can do that."
Melissa added: "She is the most kind hearted, happy little girl ever. Everyone just says she's always got the biggest smile on her face, nothing gets her down. She's been through so much as a 13-year-old and you know when you meet someone that's had cancer and gone through this journey, it's just natural to think 'you're so brave' and she just brushes it off, it's like 'I haven't got another choice have I?'.
"You know, it is what it is. She's just so genuinely kind person and she obviously loves Lana, she loves music, she's learning to play the electric guitar and ukulele. She's just a creative, happy little girl. I don't know, she's just amazing but she's my daughter isn't she, I'm going to say that.
"She just, she doesn't want for anything she really doesn't, although she's a teenager, she's not like a teenager if that makes sense, she's not bratty, she's not stubborn, she's just the most well mannered little girl you'd ever come across.
"So that's why I just really want to make this dream come true, just to see her face, it'd just be amazing. I understand Lana is so bust and I don't expect her to do like a meet and greet, but even just like if she said her name before one of the songs, just something to acknowledge Laila and that would literally make Laila's life."
She added: "It's once in a lifetime, I want to make it amazing for her and just, all the bad luck she gets, and I just feel like she needs something to make her smile."
