The family were on holiday when three-year-old Holly Barnes started feeling unwell
Kathryn and Mark Barnes with their daughter Holly
The parents of a young girl diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer at just three years old are fighting to keep their family together. Holly Barnes, now five, “wasn’t quite right” while on a family holiday with mum Kathryn and dad Mark Barnes, 42, in 2024. She’d been constipated and when they returned home to Crosby Kathryn, 38, took her straight to the doctors.
Speaking to the ECHO, Kathryn said they couldn’t put their finger on the reason for Holly’s illness. She said: “She’d be ok one minute then constipated again the next. We went to the doctors because she seemed unwell, but without any symptoms at all.
“Her temperature was high when we went to the doctors and they told us they thought she was getting an infection. She seemed fine and went to nursery as normal.
“Then, one night after nursery she started walking funny and the next morning she was really limping. We went straight to A&E, who weren’t overly concerned. We saw a doctor who thought she had an infection in her bones. She was kept in at Alder Hey and within days her symptoms deteriorated, she was on an IV drip, had morphine and was unable to stand.”
Scans were done and an MRI revealed a lump, which doctors believed to be neuroblastoma, a rare, aggressive cancer that develops from immature nerve cells). According to Children with Cancer UK, it’s almost exclusively found in children, primarily those under five.
Holly was diagnosed with stage four, “high-risk” neuroblastoma, aged just three years. The diagnosis turned life “upside down” overnight for the family of three.
Holly with her comfort rainbow blanket and teddy Upsy Daisy(Image: Kathryn Barnes)
“It all happened really quickly,” says mum Kathryn. “From taking her to Alder Hey, she was receiving chemotherapy treatment within days, you can just never expect that to happen to your child.
“When she was first diagnosed we didn’t want to know about her prognosis, just what the treatment was. They said she was high risk and we knew there was four stages and she was stage four but we didn’t want to know the statistics.
“She underwent a lot of treatment, from chemotherapy to transplants. She was in ICU, suffered a fungal lung infection and was critically put on a ventilator, or we were told she wouldn’t survive.
“Doctors warned us that Holly was so unwell there was a very high risk she wouldn’t make it and that we might never see her awake again. But, she astounded everyone and battled through and recovered.”
“Sadly, last summer we found out her cancer had relapsed during treatment and she started a clinical trial in Glasgow. It was awful, Holly had to be in an isolation room – she’s only five – for the treatment, we had to talk to her through a window, we couldn’t touch her or hug her, it was awful. She went through two rounds of that but scans showed there was no change.”
Everton FC fan Holly had the incredible opportunity of being a mascot for her team
The family say there are now not many options left for Holly. They’ve launched a fundraiser with Solving Kids’ Cancer UK in hope of being able to explore more treatment options across the world.
Mum Kathryn said: “We will try everything we can, if there’s a treatment we can get her then we will try it. But it costs. So, that’s why were fundraising to raise money to find treatments elsewhere.”
Holly is a “funny and smiley” little girl, says her parents, who despite having a rare cancer takes everything in her stride. Kathryn and Mark want to be assured they’ve done everything they can for their daughter and her fight against the killer disease.
Kathryn said: “Holly is full of character, she has a brilliant sense of humour and a big, vibrant personality. She loves to make people laugh and finds the fun everywhere.
“Some things she finds difficult but she knows what’s happening, we talk to her. She found her own way of coping with things. We want to know we have done everything we can for our daughter.”
You can donate to Kathryn and Mark’s Just Giving fundraiser for Holly online.
Holly is also a huge Everton FC fan and was once a mascot for the team in October 2025, where she met with players.
Solving Kids’ Cancer UK is a child focused, parent-led charity that fights for children with neuroblastoma. You can find out more about it online.