Fifteen-year-old Ena Marie Mifsud will be cutting her hair very short by the end of this month as she prepares for another round of her battle against a brain tumour she was diagnosed with a few days before Christmas.
“She is a fighter. She keeps smiling,” her mother Maria Mifsud says from the London hospital where Ena Marie spent the past weeks recovering from brain surgery.
Ena Marie was diagnosed with a brain tumour on December 20. She was transferred by air ambulance to Great Ormond Hospital in London, UK, where, three days later, she underwent a six-hour major operation during which surgeons removed parts of the tumour that had spread to her spine.
Accompanied by her parents, she will have to spend about nine months in the UK undergoing treatment.
Accompanied by her parents, she will have to spend about nine months in the UK undergoing treatment
“It took us a while to tell her about the tumour. We were worried about how she would take it. After she was operated, we had to tell her. She asked us to tell her the truth. The first day she was shocked, but calm as she could not believe it. Then she accepted it.”
When Ena Marie was told she should prepare to cut her hair short ahead of treatment that will start on January 31, she said she had long been wanting to try a pixie cut. Her mother also offered to cut her hair in support.
Ena Marie will be donating her hair to a London charity called the Little Princess Trust.
While they are receiving support from the Maltese government and the Malta Community Chest Fund, the family still need more help to cover expenses that include the rent of an apartment close to the hospital in central London where Ena Marie will be going regularly for outpatient treatment. The Puttinu Cares Foundation has also been of support and had offered an apartment in Sutton, but it is too far for Ena Marie to travel during her treatment.
Running for Ena Marie
In a bid to bridge the gap, her aunt, Jeanette Zammit, will be running 50 kilometres to raise funds.
The idea of running for a cause, to mark her 50th birthday on January 20, had been brewing in Jeanette’s mind for several months. Initially, she wanted to raise awareness about iron deficiency anemia – a condition she was diagnosed with in 2020.
As she was searching for a charity, Jeanette received the news that her niece had to be flown urgently to the UK. It was clear to her who the ultimate beneficiaries had to be.
“Jeanette’s run is something very positive for Ena. She is a very creative girl and has become involved by designing T-shirts for the run,” says her mother.
The T-shirts will include Ena’s two favourite quotes. One is from a Harry Potter novel: “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” The other quote comes from Jane Marczewski, known as Nightbirde, an American singer-songwriter who received the Golden Buzzer for her original song It’s OK during America’s Got Talent in 2021. She died last February, after battling cancer, but her words live on: “You can't wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy”.
Ena Marie with her mother Maria Mifsud.Choosing to be positive
Maria describes Ena Marie as a very positive teenager who was always smiling. “When we were in hospital this Christmas, she organised buying small gifts to cheer up all the other children in her ward.”
Her daughter’s health problems started two years ago when she started having stomach-related issues and was diagnosed with a rare condition that required her to go for treatment in Rome from November 2021 until March 2022.
The treatment was successful, and Ena Marie started undergoing physiotherapy to gain her strength after having been bedridden for months. All was going well when, towards the end of the year, she started complaining of a pain in her right leg. She also started losing her balance, and the family initially thought it was due to the physiotherapy.
Then she started experiencing blurred vision, and an MRI carried out on December 20 showed she had a tumour in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. Parts of the tumour had spread to the spine, causing the blurred vision and the leg pain. She was rushed to the UK for surgery at Great Ormond Hospital and then transferred to a University College London Hospital in central London.
The treatment regime will depend on the outcome of pending pathology results.
“This was the second time she spent Christmas and New Year in a hospital. She spent her 14th and 15th birthday feeling unwell. Her wish is to enjoy her 16th birthday in September,” her mother says.
Anyone who wants to support Ena Marie and her family can visit https://gogetfunding.com/run-for-ena-marie/