Alyssa Tapley

Plus... I can't compare that level of happiness to anything that I have ever felt.

Like the amount of emotion and just going from a place where you thought that you were never going to grow up

We had Fergal McKinney there and he presented her with the medal.

He's the head of the British Heart Foundation in Northern Ireland.

When I was first diagnosed, I was actually sedated.

So I knew later than everyone else, kind of.

Which, you know, when I when I first found out, I don't think I really processed it.

It's not really a thing that you think that you accept within like a day or two of finding out the news.

Yeah, yeah.

It was really hard.

I think, you know, when I started not being able to go home as much and I started spending a lot more time in hospital, it definitely got a lot harder than, you know...

Yeah, I was in Great Ormond Street Hospital for four months and I think we found out three and a half months in that I was cancer-free.

And I just remember... I can't compare that level of happiness to anything that I have ever felt.

Like, the amount of emotion and just going from a place where you thought that you were never going to grow up and you were never going to have...

a future to live, to somewhere where there are endless opportunities and there's so many possibilities.

And just being able to have the knowledge that you're going to be able to see your brother again and see your friends and the rest of your family.

Definitely.

So when we first got Holly, it was after my first failed bone marrow transplant.

Well, my first bone marrow transplant.

And, you know, it was at this point where it was like I had wanted a dog for so long.