A mum 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.
“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.
Hidden switch that can turn off ageing found in body, universal flu vaccine made from yeast, Alzheimer’s can spread like a virus, and an amazing bionic hand – all this and more in our science newsletter
‘Doctors said cancer was going to kill me – so I cut one thing out of my diet’
Rain-soaked Reading Festival attendee realises ‘big outfit mistake’ too late
Betty has treatment which she calls ‘wiggle juice’
“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.
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.
Betty before her diagnosis
“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
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.
Leave a Reply