Understandably, given the past year and a half, the Bell family don't want anything unexpected to happen this year.

But they are keen tell eight year old Delilah's story, which is one of hope and chance decisions, alongside timely moments, which means that after months of gruelling treatment, she can be just a normal sister to her two year old brother Idris and big brother Murphy.

Delilah and big brother Murphy at her parents 'her' wedding too, image, family handout

Back in September 2022 Delilah was getting ready to go back to school

Then, as her devoted mum Cailtlin tells it, they were all thrown into the middle of a terrifying medical machine, with each bit of news getting progressively worse and them all facing months of hospital stays and long visits, something Delilah is, perhaps, happily, mostly unaware of.

Her mum and dad spent countless nights at her bedside, while juggling having to look after their two other children.

Caitlin, wants Delilah's tale to be told, in part to thank all the medical staff who helped and also so that if other parents find themselves in the same terrifying round of medical emergency, they can see things CAN work out.

" I wanted to cry so much, so much of the time, " said nursery nurse Caitlin, " I was so scared about what was happening, about all we did not know, about what we were not being told, but I couldn't be afraid, or at least I could not show it because I needed to be brave for Delilah."

And today (January 16) Delilah is jumping around the house, extra proud of her special belly button, delighted to tell Nub News about her being a bridesmaid and only saying that she was a bit sad about times she could not see those brothers.

It all started back in late August 2022.

It was an intense time

Delilah bumped her head while playing in the garden and at first that's all it seemed, just a bump.

She told her mum she didn't feel well, so they took her for a check up, but it seemed it might just be mild concussion.

"The doctors said just keep a close eye on her, "explained Caitlin. "Then she started being sick. It was the first day of school but she stayed home and then her condition very quickly got worse, she had terrible headaches, and was increasingly dizzy. "

They rushed her into hospital again, and she was given a CT scan which showed, as doctors said, 'something' was there in her brain.

" I didn't really register at the time, " explained Cailtlin. " We stayed in hospital, holding medicine to stop any swelling.

"The level of worry of the doctors and nurses around her made us start thinking something was not right, but I still thought, maybe a bleed on the brain, or something. Everything became just a blur."

An MRI scan revealed a six centimetre growth at the back of Delilah's head and she was rushed into surgery for an operation lasting ten and a half hours.

The news was good, it had been a 'success'.

" The consultant tried to calm us down, "explained Caitlin. " He told us let's just do the surgery and take it from there. And that was successful so we were thrilled."

Delilah during hospital treatment, still managing to smile, image, family handout

A success?

They were also told that if the growth has been just a millimetre to one side, or if they had not come straight into hospital with her initial bump on the head, things could have been very different.

" She was able to walk into hospital on her own for the second visit, " said Caitlin, " But she had deteriorated so badly, so quickly she was now unable to move and she was dizzy she didn't know what was happening."

Then came devastating news from the biopsy that the tumour was malignant and she would need intense and intensive radiotherapy for six weeks followed by four rounds of chemotherapy and stem cell retrieval to protect her because of her young age.

She was transferred to Bristol children's hospital under the care of the oncologists and unable to see her brothers in case of infection.

The brain tumour was a high-grade medulloblastoma, really deep in the cerebellum just millimetres from her spinal cord.

We were lucky

The swelling and pressure was so great that even a day later things could have been very different.

Around 50 children are diagnosed with what Delilah had, a medulloblastoma, making it the second most common form of brain tumour.

Typically it is very fast growing and as Caitlin recalled: "The consultant doctor told us if she hadn't banged her head, and we'd come in just a week later, it would've been game over. The tumour couldn't have been more aggressive or faster growing.

"Then we had to throw the strongest possible treatment at Delilah to give her a chance of survival – weeks of radiotherapy every day followed by the highest-possible strength chemotherapy.

"For the each session of radiotherapy, she had a general anaesthetic so she would stay completely still laying face down on the bed."

Her parents played tag at her bedside - and then home to care for their two other children. " That was intense," Caitlin admits. "Her treatment became our life, nothing else, It was so frightening, the medical staff tried to tell us what was happening and keep us informed but most of the time we couldn't even take it in."

Delilah was weeks in hospital and wasn't able to eat or drink except via a tube and was mostly unable to even sit up.

The first lot of treatment lasted until Christmas last year and was delayed by infections, then there was the stem cell retrieval ( essential for her to withstand the type of chemotherapy she was about to undertake.) and then came four rounds of chemo, where she was in and out of hospital for nearly seven months.

This past September was very different

Delilah rejoined her Year 3 class at St Mary's in Writhlington in September last year.

Now all the family wish for is for an uneventful 2024, image family handout

It was a sweet moment, but on her parents also struggled with.

"It would have been very easy to beg the teachers to treat her differently, to wrap her in cotton wool and not let her play with the others because of what had happened, " said Caitlin. " And I do tend to fuss over her, and we still face the three monthly scans with trepidation in case the tumour has returned. But we need to let her be a normal little girl.

"Her going back to school felt monumental since it was exactly a year since our world just changed."

Yes, they are frightened every time Delilah picks up a cold, and she is more vulnerable to coughs and sniffles, but as far as possible she is a normal charming beautiful eight year old with wonderful eye lashes..

The end of her story ?

"The tumour is now described as 'stable' they never say cure, " explained Caitlin. " Her brain scan will never be normal but on the whole she is doing pretty good.

"There are some longer term impacts from her treatment, some of which we won't totally know until later , but we deal with that, and we worry about her weight, but as you can see she is bright and happy and full of beans. "

This year for New Year no one asked for anything of 2024.

"We have been so unlucky this happened to us but within that there have been so many little elements of luck, when it was caught, where it was, tiny nuggets of luck for our family."

Advice for other parents whose child is undergoing any traumatic medical treatments?

"Don't let on how hard you are finding it and don't go on the Internet, because that does not help," says Caitlin, "I spent night after night online desperately looking for clues and that just terrified me.

" Try to stay calm and keep going - because you don't know how this is going to end. We are all just so grateful that it ended this way for us and Delilah."