Doctors confident they removed Leah’s tumour

Fairy tales, like the story of Goldilocks, are putting a smile on little Leah’s face as she lies in her US hospital bed recovering from major surgery. “She’s looking good. She’s in pain. But she’s talking… her father and I are beside her all the time… I tell her stories. “She likes Goldilocks a lot, and I talk to her about nice places, such as the sea and nice gardens with flowers, which we visualise together,” her mother Zhana Xuereb said. She was speaking to The Times as she stood by the bedside of her three-year-old daughter at the Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas, where Leah had just undergone a 12-hour operation to remove a yolk-sac tumour, a very rare form of stomach cancer. The operation started on Monday at 10.30am US time (5.30pm in Malta). Ms Xuereb said throughout the operation she and her husband were updated about their daughter’s health every two hours. “On the 10th hour the doctor said she removed between 320 and 400 pieces of the tumour and was confident she had taken it all out. We were really happy to hear that. “At the end the doctor came out with a smile on her face. All went well without complications. We were taken near Leah soon after. She was already awake.