At the age of four, Lacey-Mae Spong-McCelland was diagnosed with a brain tumour and during subsequent surgery for the condition, suffered a stroke. Now 12, Lacey has just spent her new year and Christmas at a hospital where she’s undergone her fifth round of treatment which will give her and her family more time together.
The youngster from Barry was complaining of intense headache which led to the emergency surgery to remove the tumour from her brain. The tumour was near her optic nerve and during the surgery Lacey had a stroke that left her partially-sighted. The aftermath of the surgery saw dad, Rob, leave his job in 2016 to become a full-time carer for his daughter.
Rob said: “I gave up my job to look after Lacey full time. I could drive so it made more sense for me to look after her and be on call for whenever. So since she was diagnosed I’ve basically never left her side.” After years of not leaving their daughter’s side and caring for her, nurses at the hospital in Cardiff where Lacey is treated put a referral in to Ty Hafan to allow Rob and mum Donna some respite. Rob said it had “got too much” and they were in need of a rest by the beginning of 2024.
Lacey-Mae’s dad, Rob, left his job to care for his daughter
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
In August last year, Lacey stayed at the Ty Hafan facility in Sully for the weekend giving her parents much needed rest whilst she was in the safe hands of nurses. Being from nearby Barry Rob knew about Ty Hafan but said: “It wasn’t what we’d expected, when we came for our visit it was quite emotional, knowing how well she’d be looked after when she’s here. I didn’t expect it to be as full-on as it is.”
Ty Hafan has apartments on site that parents can stay in whilst their child is being looked after by staff overnight. This was the first time Rob had left Lacey in the care of nurses since she was diagnosed and he found leaving her hard at first. Rob said: “I thought it was going to be hard coming to Ty Hafan and it was, the first night I didn’t get much sleep even though we were just upstairs.
“But after seeing the way the staff are with her it made it easier. I think I had to do it for my own sanity as well, and Ty Hafan has helped us quite a bit.”
As Lacey approaches being a teenager she is trying to understand her diagnosis and what it means for her. She has been participating in art-psychotherapy at Ty Hafan which had helped her “make sense of everything”, said Rob. For the latest health and Covid news, sign up to our newsletter here
Lacey is very sociable and loves to make friends with the other children at the hospice. Due to Lacey being in the process of moving schools, she isn’t able to socialise with other children but Ty Hafan gives her the opportunity to interact with other children and adults.
Since her diagnosis, Lacey has undergone four chemotherapy treatment courses and is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in London, where the family stayed over Christmas and the new year. The course will finish at the end of this month, with Lacey having undergone 28 treatment sessions, five a day over a six-week period.
Throughout the course of her life, whilst facing difficulties with her health Lacey has remained positive and wears a big smile on her face. Rob said he’d found that Ty Hafan had helped him feel more “relaxed” about having Lacey constantly by his side where he could take care of her.
He added: “Even at the hospital I wouldn’t let the nurses go off with her or let her spend the night in a room on her own. Basically, because of her needs, with her vision if she needs to get up in the night to go to the toilet or when she’s having chemo and she’s sick she wouldn’t have a nurse one-to-one whereas here (Ty Hafan) she has her own nurse during the day and her own nurse during the night.”
WalesOnline has launched a new breaking news and top stories WhatsApp community. From the biggest court stories to the latest traffic updates, weather warnings and breaking news, it’s a simple way to stay up to date with what’s happening in Wales.
Want to join? All you have to do is click on this link, select ‘Join Community’ and you’re in. We will not spam your feed with constant messages, but you will receive updates from us daily.
If for some reason you decide you no longer want to be in our community, you can leave by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking ‘Exit Group’. We occasionally treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. You can read our Privacy Notice here.
Join our WhatsApp community here