A mum has described how she was told her little girl 'just had a virus' before doctors said she wouldn't make it through the night. But the girl who battled kidney failure at the age of two before undergoing a kidney transplant and being diagnosed with bowel cancer says has "beat the odds" repeatedly.

Jennifer McNeill, 43, is mum to nine-year-old Bay, who has confronted life-threatening health challenges since she was two years old. Between 2018 and 2025, Bay was regularly admitted to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital as kidney failure resulted in a transplant, before she fought a bowel tumour and was declared cancer-free in November 2025.

Despite enduring the unthinkable, Bay's childhood was brightened by the charity Spread a Smile, which delivers joy, fun and laughter to seriously ill children throughout lengthy hospital admissions, and Jennifer said she is "just in absolute awe" of their efforts.

• New warning for some taking drugs like Sertraline, Citalopram and Fluoxetine


• Mounjaro and Wegovy users warned they could be left 'worse off'

Bay's health struggle started in February 2018, when, at two years old, she became unwell. "We thought it was a virus... like a cold, a malaise," Jennifer, who resides in Barking, east London, told PA Real Life.

Following several GP appointments, Jennifer brought Bay to A&E twice as she felt "something doesn't feel right". Medical staff suspected it was a virus, recommending Jennifer give Calpol, but after three weeks Bay started appearing "really pale, like an off-colour grey, almost, and she was starting to vomit and walking really funny, losing her balance," Jennifer said.

They made a third visit to A&E, where medics carried out further tests before concluding Bay was well enough to return home, as they continued to suspect she had a virus. Bay being Bay was, apart from that, her normal, chatty, wonderful, energetic self, singing songs," Jennifer said.

"But before we were about to go home, one doctor said, on our way out: 'Actually, I'm going to do a blood test. She does look a bit of an odd colour'.

"We did the blood test and they came running back and said: 'There must be a mistake, because her electrolytes seem a bit off'. Back then, I didn't really have any experience with blood numbers, I didn't really know what anything meant.

"He said, 'Oh, her potassium is reading quite high. This must be wrong'. Did the test again. Did it for a third time. And then things moved very quickly.

"Suddenly, we were moved into resus. Bay seemed very well – I remember Bay sitting up in resus on the bed – and they said: 'We think she's in kidney failure'. I was in utter disbelief and shock."

From that point, Jennifer said "things just went at 100 miles an hour". The room was filled with doctors, and they were liaising with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), which she described as feeling "felt very surreal".

Bay was then rushed to GOSH by ambulance, and "within about two minutes of arriving in intensive care, she was intubated, put into a coma and they very quickly told me that she's not going to survive the night".

Jennifer was in disbelief that they had almost left the hospital and is immeasurably thankful to "that one doctor that one million per cent saved her life". She was told to "prepare for the worst" as Bay was put on dialysis, with doctors fearing it had "gone too far".

She discovered that Bay would require a kidney transplant, but Jennifer had already donated one of her kidneys to her mother, who struggled with a late diabetes diagnosis, so she couldn't be her daughter's donor. Fortunately, her identical twin sister Mimi, who had just arrived at GOSH to offer support, "instantly" offered herself as a donor for Bay.

Bay couldn't have the transplant straight away, as she needed to be stabilised and prepared for the procedure. She was a patient at GOSH for three months, "in and out of ICU", before being allowed home when Jennifer was trained to administer dialysis from home.

"I remember that day a nurse from the hospital came home with us and set up all the machines at home and I remember that feeling of feeling very vulnerable," Jennifer said. "I'm at home now, with her having dialysis. We've got a big machine that alarms, and I'm really in charge of her... That became our normality, our new normal, and we did that for three years."

By August 2021, after her health had improved and following delays caused by the Covid pandemic, Bay was able to receive Mimi's kidney transplant. The procedure was successful, and Jennifer said "you could see the instant colour in Bay's face" after the then-five year old had an entire adult kidney transplanted.

However, it quickly emerged that a complication had arisen from the surgery. Jennifer discovered that Bay's lymphatic system had been damaged during the operation and she stayed in hospital until December 2021.

"We had some very horrible conversations around if they can keep her safe, if they can save her, but Bay being Bay, she did beat the odds again," Jennifer said, adding that Bay was able to come home for Christmas 2021.

"It felt terrifying, to be honest, because of the gravity of the situation that we were in... You feel so euphoric, the last few years have been building up to this transplant. You understand that things can always happen, but for the majority, it's going to go fine," Jennifer said.

"She came out of the ICU, she was walking around. It was like, wow, Bay's up and about already. And then suddenly you're thrown into a world where she's back to ICU, and things feel very uncertain. When the doctors don't feel certain that they can put things right, it's really just an uneasy, terrifying feeling."

Mimi was also hospitalised with septicaemia after undergoing surgery at a different hospital, which made the situation even more frightening for Jennifer. "But you have to just put your faith in the teams and just take each day as it comes."

Through it all, Spread a Smile kept them going. The charity, which works in hospitals nationwide, provides virtual and face-to-face visits from entertainers – ranging from magicians to musicians, artists to therapy dogs – to seriously ill children in NHS hospitals and hospices.

In 2025 and 2026, Spread a Smile will deliver more than 18,411 in-person bedside visits and over 2,860 virtual visits, working alongside 39 NHS hospitals and six hospice partners. During a chance encounter in a park near GOSH when Bay was two, she and Jennifer met Spread a Smile staff who invited Bay to participate in their activities, restoring some happiness to her childhood.

Overall, Bay's recovery from her transplant took approximately a year – and from that point onwards, she was thriving and making up for lost time. Jennifer started homeschooling Bay, and she began participating in extra-curricular clubs including performing arts, Brownies and chess club.

However, in early 2024 her blood tests began to show abnormalities, and "she started to look quite puffy, but the main alarming symptom was she started to get some blood in her poo". The possibility of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) – a viral infection often responsible for glandular fever – was increasing according to her blood results, and Jennifer understood that for immunosuppressed Bay it had "the potential to be quite dangerous" and could lead to post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD).

As per Lymphoma Action, PTLD is the general term for lymphomas that can occur in individuals who have undergone a transplant. Many instances of PTLD are associated with EBV, as the weakened immune system post-transplant can trigger the EBV to transform lymphocytes into cancerous cells.

"Eventually, in December 2024 we had an ultrasound, because I was digging my heels in a little bit. There's something very wrong," Jennifer said. "They found a mass in her bowel, which I think in my heart of hearts it was almost like a relief, because we just knew, for almost a year, that something was wrong."

On December 18, 2024, Bay was diagnosed with PTLD, and "things started moving very quickly again". Bay was admitted to hospital, underwent a biopsy and a lumbar puncture to determine if it was cancer, and Jennifer was informed that doctors had identified a malignancy, with the lesion in Bay's bowel, and that she would require chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

"I think it's every parent's worst nightmare, to be honest," she said. At first, Bay's outlook "wasn't great", as she was vulnerable and immunocompromised after her transplant.

Medics recommended a reduced dose of chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy, as they worried her body wouldn't withstand more intensive chemotherapy, but Bay only experienced "a partial response".

By March 2025, after Bay had been undergoing chemotherapy for three months, doctors indicated they would need to explore alternative treatments, as the reduced dose wasn't proving effective and they remained hesitant to pursue a more intensive approach. "Reading between the lines, we knew what that meant," Jennifer said, and once more she and her family braced themselves for the worst.

Nevertheless, following another consultation amongst the specialists, they determined they would attempt the intensive chemotherapy, which Jennifer "fully supported". They commenced a new course of 10 cycles of chemotherapy, and whilst it was "a little bit bumpy because it's aggressive chemo and Bay's already very immunosuppressed... She got through it".

"To get the cancer that Bay had – she had it quite aggressively in her bowel – was quite rare," Jennifer said. "The protocol they followed, they've only used it, I think, nine times in 20-plus years."

In November 2025, Bay underwent a PET scan which confirmed there was no further evidence of cancer, which Jennifer described as "was just the most wonderful news, considering she went in with one arm behind her back".

Following confirmation of Bay's remission, she now requires PET scans twice yearly. Jennifer was informed the likelihood of relapse is low, though she acknowledges that "it's always a possibility".

"We live for now, until the next scan," she continued. "We are just completely going to grab life with both hands. It's really hard to put into words how much you appreciate life.

"You're just thankful and grateful and I can't believe it, almost, I cannot believe it. It's this feeling you've been waiting for and wishing and praying for the whole time, and you don't ever think you're going to get there and hear it, but it's wonderful."

Bay remains homeschooled by her mum and has returned to Brownies and chess club, alongside her performing arts academy, whilst staying actively engaged with her Spread a Smile family.

"The other day, we went to the winter party and somebody was asking her, 'What does Spread a Smile mean to you?' She said: 'I get to meet lots of children like me'," Jennifer recalled, noting that even the chance to attend a party was significant for Bay.

"She didn't go to nursery or school, she didn't get invited to parties, but she went to a party every year, with Spread a Smile. Obviously, when you're a vulnerable child, we would not really go to any kind of social events or mingle.

"But with Spread a Smile, we know that we're with like-minded families, we know it's going to be – as much as we can predict – a safe environment. We will always go."

To discover more about Spread a Smile, visit spreadasmile.org