Esmé Lambert was just 2 years old when her parents noticed she was vomiting for no apparent reason.
The diagnosis hit like a blow: ependymoma, a rare, high-grade brain tumor near the spinal cord. The doctors were clear: without surgery, she wouldn’t survive. The operation lasted 8 hours and went well, but left a scar about 3 inches long on the back of the neck of the youngest of four siblings. After that came 19 months of chemotherapy. Her father, Aaron, a 36-year-old freelance decorator in Swaffham, Norfolk, describes her as his “whole world” and says she smiled through nearly two years of treatment.
Now Esmé’s latest scans are clear of cancer. And Aaron made a decision: he sat for nearly three hours while they tattooed an exact replica of that scar on the back of his head, so his daughter wouldn’t feel like the “odd one out”. He said he felt that “whatever happens to her also happens to me”. Esmé, her parents say, enjoys having a mark that matches her dad’s. The family supports Cancer Research UK’s campaign to drive more research.
