Amelie’s Story

Amelie Coelho Flatt, a 12 year old from, Bedfordshire, UK, has spent 10years of her life battling leukaemia. Diagnosed at just three years old, she’s faced the relentless challenge of blood cancer not once, not twice, but four times. Her journey has been long, with numerous relapses, treatments, and hospital stays. But now, having undergone a stem cell transplant in April 2024, Amelie is looking forward to a “fresh start”.

Her story began in July 2015 aged three years old when she began to feel very sick. Doctors initially thought it might be a virus or a urine infection, but after her condition rapidly deteriorated, she was transferred to intensive care. It was there, she was diagnosed with leukaemia.

Amelie underwent chemotherapy from 2015 to 2017, going into remission before relapsing at the age of eight in 2021. After another 18 months of chemotherapy, Amelie was once again cancer-free, until  August 2023, when she relapsed for a third time. This relapse hit harder “The relapse came as a real shock to us all. She obviously understood so much more than she did when she was just three.” Amelie fought hard and won, but the battle wasn’t over. Just four months after completing treatment, leukaemia returned for the forth time in August 2023.

This time, Amelie was treated with CAR T-cell therapy. When that failed, her last option was a bone marrow transplant, which she had in April 2024. This treatment brought new challenges, as Amelie spent four months in hospital isolation. For those four months, she was isolated away from everybody except her mum and her dad. The isolation was incredibly difficult for Amelie, but despite it all, she remained hopeful.

After so much hardship, Amelie is also looking forward to a return to normal life and sharing her journey with others by posting vlogs on TikTok.