Stars give thumbs-up to Salford schoolgirl fighting cancer

By Bethan Edwards on 15th December 2020 in News

A host of celebrities have posted thumbs-up selfie pictures to support an 11-year-old from Swinton who is fighting leukaemia.

Emily Martin has gone viral after appealing for people to send her thumbs up selfies on Twitter.

The 11-year-old girl has received good luck wishes from the likes of Lord Alan Sugar, former England football captain Gary Lineker, Radio 2 DJ Ken Bruce, TV presenter Dan Walker, Coronation Street stars and many more.

Emily Martin was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in June and has since been receiving treatment.

Alarm bells first started ringing to Emily’s parents, Andy and Dawn, when their daughter fainted in a supermarket in Swinton which was put down to the hot weather.

Hey Emily, good luck. pic.twitter.com/VT4rEYQqlQ

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 18, 2020

After complaining of pain in her ankles, she was taken to Salford Royal Hospital where she received a blood test and was transferred to the children’s hospital where she was diagnosed with cancer.

Emily, a pupil at St Charles Catholic Primary School, had a long stay in hospital ahead, there was little to entertain her and her father on the wards other than day time TV and radio.

Andy, 46, said: “This last week Emily’s got a bacterial infection so were back in hospital for the week and it’s been really boring. So, I just said shall we send a few tweets out for a bit of fun and see if we can get celebrities to reply.

“I just tweeted the photo and never thought much of it. Then Ken Bruce and Dan Walker sent one back with their thumbs up and because their followers saw it we had all these different people reply. Like Kim Marsh, Corrie stars and a lot of Salford rugby players too.”

“It’s just a bit of fun and to pass the time on.”

Thanks Tom here’s a thumbs up for Emily and for you from Craig Revel Horwood 👍🏿👍🏾👍🏽👍🏼👍🏻 #thumbsupforemily pic.twitter.com/6ycgQnfLyO

— Dr Clare Campbell (@ClareCampbell7) July 6, 2020

So far, the ‘Thumbs Up for Emily’ appeal has over 2.2 thousand likes and 217 retweets. Andy, added: “We’ve had others who have had cancer tweet back with their thumbs up too and wishing her all the best which is nice to have the messages of support and a big boost for us all.

“When I showed her, she was very overwhelmed and found it funny that the famous people have sent a picture with their thumbs up back.”

Emily’s father recalls when he was told the devastating news back in June. He had to break it to his 11-year-old daughter, he said: “I said to her, have you heard of leukaemia? And she burst into tears.

“I had to explain to her there’s no point getting upset because the doctor said we treat and cure that’s what we do and we see it every day.

“Yes it’s a shock for us but we have to deal with it and we can’t do anything about it so there’s no point getting upset about it. That’s how we’ve been since day one.

“Unfortunately, I said to her you’re going to lose all your hair which she wasn’t bothered by that which was a relief. She’s been fantastic ever since.

“A hard part was that my wife couldn’t come into hospital with us because of covid, so I was having to explain everything over FaceTime while she was upset which was difficult.

“How strong Emily’s been through it all and seeing other parents on the ward struggling she’s really just been brilliant”