9 March 2016
Dear Parent/Carer
At only 16, the day before her prom, Lucy Goulding, a student at Chatsmore Catholic High School in Worthing, tragically lost her life. Lucy died due to undiagnosed raised intracranial pressure (accumulation of fluid in the brain) due to a benign brain tumour. Lucy died because of a lack of knowledge of signs and symptoms of brain tumours among health professionals.
Lucy’s tragic death was a devastating blow to the local community and more importantly Lucy’s family. We want to ensure no other child dies needlessly, so we are asking the government to do three things:
• Urgent scans to be instigated at the onset of symptoms of a brain tumour rather than at the end of the investigation, when it would likely be too late.
• Introduce information leaflets on signs and symptoms of brain tumours in all GP surgeries and schools in the UK. This is to ensure that not only health professionals but also the wider public, particularly anyone who works with children and young people, are better educated about a condition that although rare, has a higher mortality rate than leukaemia in children.
• Mandatory yearly training on signs and symptoms of brain tumours for all health professionals.
Please sign and share this petition (the link is below) as widely as you can with other parents/carers, to ensure the government takes the appropriate action, to firstly educate and then hopefully significantly reduce these immature deaths or morbidity in our nation’s children. Ten thousand signatures will mean the government has to respond, one hundred thousand means it would potentially be debated in parliament.
Petition link: http://goo.gl/VRuVrk (ctrl+click to follow link)
This link will take you to the petition and also a page on Chatsmore CHS Website with further information on brain tumours, and Lucy’s story as written by her mother, Mrs Goulding.
I hope you will feel able to support us in our efforts to reduce deaths in young people.
Kind regards
Mr Simon Liley
Headteacher
