Ellie Will be Queen of the Prom

Ellie Makin deserves more than anyone to be the queen of her prom.

Ellie, 16, from Hotham Road, Cranswick, has missed out on a major chunk of her life as she battles a rare brain cancer Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors (PNET) which has left her unable to walk and has affected her eyesight.

But undaunted by the huge challenges she has faced since being diagnosed with PNET in February 2008, Ellie has battled against the odds and tomorrow night she will join her Driffield School friends at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel, Willerby, for their end of school prom and fulfil her dream.

Ellie told HU17.net: “At the beginning of the year I was not able to do many things but I have got a lot stronger and am able to take my own clothes off now.

“Everyone thought I would not be at the prom – not like that, because I am going to beat this – but just not be able to go.

“All my friends are excited because I will now be able to go and we will all be sitting on the same table. They did not realise I would be able to go, but when I told them they were jumping up and down and are really pleased.

“When I got ill, I missed a lot of schoolwork and then thought I would come back to school and do my last year, and then when the girls mentioned the prom I thought, well I am not going to be able to go because I was in my wheelchair, I couldn’t walk.

“I was just getting over the fact my eyesight isn’t good and I can’t walk for the rest of my life.

“But then my friends said they were sure I could go and I said oh, maybe.

“Now it is coming closer and I can go!”

Ellie has endured a real test of her character since the diagnosis, but her will to win has seen her overcome every obstacle put in her way.

Her mum Jane, who herself is a cancer survivor, says it’s a real credit to Ellie that she has coped so admirably with an illness that only offers a 10 per cent chance of survival for sufferers.

She said: “It is a very rare brain tumour. The tumour is around the lining of the brain so it could not be operated on.

“She has had the highest dose of radiotherapy and the longest course of chemotherapy that the body can stand and she has been clear for the past nine months.

“The prognosis is a 10 per cent chance of survival, but she is going to be in that 10 per cent.

“She has been unbelievable, words can’t describe how proud I am of her.

“The prom is very important for Ellie as she’s had a long, hard battle these past two years. She’s missed out on a huge chunk of her school life and her friends and it is every girl’s dream to be at the prom.

“It will be amazing, just seeing her try it on now I know I will be crying on the night.”

Ellie’s prom dream really came true when Jane Nixon, who owns the Celebration Village at Something Special, on Holderness Road, learned of her illness and wanted to help.

Jane fitted Ellie for a beautiful pink dress and a tiara – and then stunned her by saying she could keep her dress after her prom.

Ellie continued: “I thought Jane meant she was just giving me the dress for the night and I was so pleased even just to get that but she said I can have it.

“When she said that I could keep it I felt like crying, but good crying. I could not stop hugging her.

“Then she brought my tiara out and I can’t stop looking at it because it looks like what a princess wears.

“Everyone will be really jealous of my dress – I will be the best one there.”

Ellie plans to move on to in Beverley next year to study , and if her amazing outlook on life is anything to go by, she will make a success of any future career.

She continued: “There have been bad days, but I am very positive and focused on the good things.

“Me and my uncle Dave joke about it and they all say how positive I am and if it was them they do not think they would be as positive.

“My mum had cancer and she has always been positive and we always look on the bright side. There are people worse than me.”

To find out more about PNET, click here

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