Mollies Arc

22/09/2026

Miss Mollie Moo is 11🎉🥳
She celebrated with her friends having lunch and shopping!

13/09/2026

Well done to all the runners Ethan’s Arc who ran the Great North Run👏

03/09/2026

Reality of childhood cancer 😢

Ben should be headed back to school with his friends today.

Year 10... but forever at primary school.

Ben's big brother heads back to college today and his biggest brother heads back to University in a couple of weeks. We are beyond proud of them. But it also reminds us of paths that Ben won't ever be able to make. Would he still want to be a professional Pokemon trainer, a doctor, an astronaut - or something else?

Cancer steals childhoods. Cancer steals the future. All that potential 💔

This week is a tough one.

We are thinking of all the families who have an empty doorstep instead of a back to school doorstep photo.

Thinking of those who are missing a sibling.

Thinking of those who want to go back to school but can't.

Thinking of those who can / have to go to school but it's a challenge.

We hold you all in our hearts 💔

01/09/2026

🎗️Childhood Cancer Awareness Month 🎗️

Raising awareness of childhood cancer and the signs and symptoms to look out for.

It isn’t always a sick child with obvious red flags. This photo was taken when I first noticed something was ‘different’ about Mollie’s eye. Literally 10 minutes before I took this photo, I had lifted her out of her car seat and noticed her left eye looked different. The only way I could describe it was that her eyeball appeared displaced.

No one else could see what I was talking about.

This was on the Saturday. By the Tuesday, her pupil was fixed, her eyeball didn’t move, and I discovered she was blind in that eye.

My gut told me on the Saturday that something was very wrong, but because no one else could see it, I started to feel like I was being paranoid.

Trust your gut. Mums are NEVER paranoid.

Cancer symptoms in children can be very subtle.

Here are a few things to look out for:

🚩 Unexplained or persistent lump or swelling
🚩 Persistent bone, joint, or back pain
🚩 Unusual bruising or bleeding
🚩 Ongoing pale appearance, tiredness, or weakness
🚩 Frequent or persistent fevers or infections
🚩 Persistent headaches, especially with morning vomiting
🚩 Unexplained weight loss or loss of appetite
🚩 Changes in vision or balance
🚩 A persistent cough or shortness of breath

You know your child.

Never feel like you’re overreacting or being paranoid.

You aren’t.

❤️

29/08/2026

Mollie had a busy but fun summer!

She celebrated her 8-year ‘cancer anniversary’ – 8 years since she was diagnosed. It’s a milestone that she now looks forward to celebrating. So she went out for dinner with some friends 🥰

Mollie also spent part of her summer supporting big sister Grace at a hockey tournament, followed by a cricket tour to Jersey. She really is the best wee sister! It’s not always much fun standing at the side of a sports pitch when you’re 10 years old!!!

For our holiday, we went to Singapore and had the best time!

Mollie has now returned to school for her final year of primary school 🤯 It’s a busy start, as she has her post-primary school transfer tests in November. There’s a lot of work to do before then. Poor wee poppet! But she’s working hard… with only a little complaining!!!

Eight years ago, we were absolutely terrified. There was a 50:50 chance of survival. I try to remind myself of that when I find myself freaking out over a school selection process for very young children!!!

At the end of the day, alive, healthy and happy are what really matter ❤️

31/07/2026

Eight years ago today, I walked into the Royal Victoria Hospital A&E with this tiny little poppet, just two years old. She had suddenly lost the sight in her left eye and her pupil wasn’t reacting to light.

A few short days later, we were told she had cancer.

A diagnosis that threatened to take her life.

Some days it feels like a lifetime ago, like it didn’t really happen. Other days it feels like we’ve lived every long second of these past eight years, wading through mud just to be present and live a normal life.

These days, Mollie likes to celebrate this anniversary. And she should. Usually we’re on holiday, but today she spent it exactly as a 10-year-old should, having dinner with friends and shopping for makeup.

Mollie is thriving. But life isn’t easy for her. There are so many challenges that people don’t see or understand. I wish she’d never had cancer. I wish the treatment that saved her life hadn’t left her with lifelong side effects she has to manage every day. I wish life could just be a little easier for her.

People often say, “But she’s here, and she’s alive.” And they’re right. I never take that for granted.

But this anniversary always reminds me that cancer is never really in the past. Treatment ends, but the effects don’t. Some days it’s easier to carry than others. Today feels heavy. A painful reminder of everything that happened to Mollie and everything she continues to live with.

I’m so proud of her. Eight years on, she continues to amaze me every single day.

26/07/2026

LAUNCH OF JAMIE'S ARC, THE 40TH ARC IN THE UK

Today (Sunday 26th July 2026), an all star charity football fundraising match was hosted by Royston Town Football Club in memory of Jamie Covington. The club will donate half of all ticket sales to Jamie's Arc which we are honoured to launch as our 40th Arc in the UK.

Jamie was diagnosed with high-risk metastatic fusion-positive alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in May 2023. His care was led from Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge. Jamie underwent nine rounds of IVADO chemotherapy, 23 rounds of radiotherapy, oral maintenance treatment with vinorelbeine and cyclophosphamide, and 14 rounds of VIT chemotherapy. Despite enduring every treatment available to him, the disease returned. When faced with the news that there was no cure, Jamie's family fundraised to access a private treatment in Germany involving immunotherapy and chemotherapy. On the 30th November 2025, aged just 15, Jamie tragically died. Read more about his story via Jamie's Arc link below.

https://www.alicesarc.org/arc/jamie-joseph-holson/

Jamie's Arc has been designed to reflect his major loves in life - the Game of Thrones series, football and gaming. The sword and shield as the main icon have been adapted from Jamie's Quest, which was set up to raise funds to access alternative treatments for Jamie. In the Arc a dragon can be seen representing Game of Thrones, which he watched three times in total! The football shirt illustrates his love of playing football and being an Arsenal supporter. Jamie also really enjoyed gaming which became very handy whilst he was in hospital enabling him to keep in touch with friends and his cousins through online game playing. In his Arc you can see the gaming controller illustrating this.

Jamie's family have set up Jamie's Arc to create greater hope for the future of children diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma. They are not happy with the lack of treatment advances for rhabdomyosarcoma over the last 40 years and the lack of investment into researching and developing new treatment options for the disease. They want to continue Jamie's legacy and raise awareness of rhabdomyosarcoma by standing alongside the parents at Alice’s Arc to help improve the lives of other children and families facing this devastating diagnosis in the hope that children and families may one day have a different outcome.

We are so proud to welcome Jamie's Arc to our now 40 strong army of Arcs. 40 families and counting working together to tell the world that the status quo for rhabdomyosarcoma is unacceptable and we demand urgent change. 40 Arcs and a community of more rhabdomyosarcoma families tirelessly fundraising to enable pioneering research to happen across multiple institutions. We do this to change the story for the future, for those who have never heard of the beast that is rhabdomyosarcoma.

Always for Jamie and all the other children who are our motivators and inspirations.

16/07/2026

Please take a look at this really important research study looking at the late effects of proton beam therapy on teeth and jaw development in childhood cancer survivors.

As many of you know, we’ve experienced these late effects ourselves. I first got involved with Emma’s research after we started having problems with Mollie’s teeth, when Dr Danny at UF Proton kindly put us in touch.

It’s so encouraging to see research focusing on the long-term impact of childhood cancer treatment, because survivorship doesn’t end when treatment finishes. Understanding these late effects is so important for improving care for children in the future.

If you or someone you know had proton beam therapy for head and neck cancer as a child, please consider taking part. Every response helps build a better understanding of the challenges survivors can face.

There’s also a £10 voucher for completing the survey. Thank you for helping support such an important piece of research. 💛

[email protected]

09/07/2026

Miss Mollie sharing her story with Sarcoma Cancer Ireland. Follow along in July to read about many different types of sarcoma. Know the symptoms of sarcoma. It’s an aggressive cancer and early diagnosis helps improve survival rates 🎗️

07/07/2026

Emma💖

LAUNCH OF OUR 39TH ARC IN THE UK -EMMA'S ARC

Today, marks the year anniversary of Emma's family having her 2nd relapse of Rhabdomyosarcoma confirmed, she had run out of curative treatment options. Five months later in December 2025, Emma died, aged six years old. She is loved and missed beyond words. It felt right for Emma's parents to launch her Arc today as a tribute to Emma and to help create change for the future.

In October 2022, Emma was diagnosed with metastatic embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma after a mass was discovered in her neck. She had just turned 3 years old. She went on to have nine rounds of IVADO chemotherapy and 28 rounds of radiotherapy. Maintenance protocol followed for 4 months before Emma sadly relapsed. A new tumour was discovered in her nasal cavity. She travelled to the Princess Maxima Centre, Netherlands where she received AMORE treatment, alongside 11 rounds of VIT chemotherapy. Her care was led from Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. Read more about her story via Emma's Arc link below.

https://www.alicesarc.org/arc/emma-noto/

Emma's Arc has been designed to convey all of Emma's loves and her personality. Emma loved rainbows and her Arc has been created using a rainbow as the centrepiece. She had incredible times at the beach and a bucket and spade represent this. Emma was a big fan of Paddington Bear and Princess Aurora so Paddington features as the main icon and a crown is included in the Arc. Emma also loved her scooter which had rainbow ribbons on the handle bars and is also included in the Arc. To convey Emma's kind personality, hands holding a heart can also be seen. We hope Emma would approve.

Emma's family want to see more research into rhabdomyosarcoma. Like so many Arcs, they ask for kinder and more effective treatments designed specifically for children. Ultimately, they want to see better outcomes for children whose cancer returns, and greater access to innovative treatments wherever they are available.

They have reiterated our mission and reason for existing. Emma and all the children we work for provide our motivation and relentless passion to change the story for children with rhabdomyosarcoma. Emma's parents rightly said 'Most of all, families need hope.' HOPE is the most important thing of all when faced with this diagnosis, through the treatment and is necessary regardless of the outcome. We work hard to ensure our Rhabdomyosarcoma research portfolio, now with 15 projects brings new treatment options and saves more children in the future.

We want to thank Emma's Arc for joining us and look forward to working together.

Nathalie Follen