A rare brain tumor❗Every day is crucial for Marika's life❗

The imaging test revealed the tragedy.

For many days , Marika complained of increasing headaches that did not subside despite the use of painkillers. She became hypersensitive to light and sound, and enlarged veins appeared above her left temple, which immediately caused her mother to become concerned.
On April 25, 2025, they went to the emergency room in Bolesławiec, where an urgent MRI scan revealed a very large tumor in the 13-year-old's head.
She was immediately transported by medical transport to a hospital in Katowice. A few days later, Marika was already being prepared for surgery, which would absolutely determine her life.

Eight hours under the scalpel and fighting for his life

Just four days after the diagnosis , a procedure lasting over eight hours was performed. The doctors warned my mother that she had to be prepared for anything, including the worst-case scenario.
Despite the dramatic prognosis , the operation was successful. The ten-centimeter tumor was completely removed.

Marika spent the next few weeks in the neurosurgery ward, gradually recovering, while the material taken for histopathological examination underwent detailed analysis for three months.
The initial result indicated a grade III ependymoma, and on this basis, treatment was started according to two chemotherapy protocols. Despite this, there was something in the results that worried the specialists and forced them to continue with diagnostic caution.

New diagnosis, new treatment

In August , the final diagnosis came. Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (AT/RT), a rare and extremely aggressive childhood brain cancer.
Due to the dramatic nature of the diagnosis and its extremely rare occurrence, fragments of the tumor were also sent to Bonn and Heidelberg. Both centers confirmed the result without any doubt.

Marika had to start treatment from scratch. From August to mid-September, she underwent proton therapy in Krakow, after which she was referred to Przylądek Nadziei (Cape of Hope) in Wrocław.
She is currently undergoing her second chemotherapy protocol, with two more to go. It is also known that a bone marrow transplant will be necessary after the cycles are completed, which is why stem cells have already been collected.

Septic shock and another turning point

Between the first and second diagnoses , there was another dramatic moment that once again threatened her life. Marika suffered septic shock, which led to the rupture of a small vein in the right hemisphere of her brain, causing a hematoma that required urgent intervention.
It was a time when the specter of losing her child reappeared, but Marika survived once again and continues to fight.

The difficult everyday life of a thirteen-year-old girl

The intensity of the treatment, repeated cycles of chemotherapy, and the enormous strain on her body led to extreme weakness and loss of strength. Her mother does not work and never leaves her daughter's side, organizing her entire life around her needs and constant trips to the hospital.
She does not call it a sacrifice. She is grateful that Marika, despite the horribly difficult operation and long treatment, has retained all her cognitive functions, that she remembers, talks, and walks! In the face of such a diagnosis, this is a gift that cannot be overestimated.
Marika still has a long, burdensome, and costly road ahead of her. Chemotherapy, proton therapy, bone marrow transplant, travel expenses, medications, care products, daily care, and everything else necessary to keep her body stable require expenses that are impossible to bear alone.