“What I want most of all” by Jojo, age 10

Posted by: Jojo Allen
31st January, 2012

Hello, my name is Josephine but everyone calls me Jojo.

I’m just 10 years old – my birthday is on New Year’s Day so that’s easy to remember!

I was a baby when I first came to Great Ormond Street Hospital and have been coming back ever since. I have seen photos of me as a baby with a “trache”, that’s a tube in my neck and I have a scar where it was now which looks a bit like a hole, but it’s not anymore. The children in Year One sometimes ask what it is. That was to help me breathe.

I go to Our Lady of Victories RC School in London and last year I took part in the Dance Showdown, a street dance competition between all the schools in the borough and we came second which was really poopy. So, in case you haven’t guessed, my favourite hobby is dancing and reading Jacqueline Wilson books. I love her. And I love Tinie Tempah and Justin Bieber too.

I had a stage three neuroblastoma, which is a kind of cancer but I’m better now. I don’t remember much of what happened when I was little, but when I come back for tests and scans and checks up the hospital does feel familiar. I always remember the big red bus as you walk in and the playrooms in the waiting areas.

If it’s your first time at the hospital try not to be worried because you are in safe hands. The doctors and nurses make you feel at home. They talk to you, not just your mummy and daddy, so you understand what’s going on. And they are warm hearted and kind and calm.

I always go to the church on the ground floor when I come to the hospital and I say a prayer for all the children there, that they all get better.

When I was poorly my mummy set up Kiss It Better, for children with cancer. It helps the research into cancer so more children can get better. February is the Kiss It Better month and every year I make a Valentine’s card, which you can buy to help raise money. There are little pin badges you can buy too – everyone at my school has one.

We have also done a Bake it Better cake sale at school to raise money. Clinique, the make up people, are great too and they do special lipsticks to raise money too. My mummy lets me wear the lipglosses some times!

In the future I want to be good at art – I won an art competition last year – and I want to dance a lot and play with my Harumika dolls.

But most of all, I want all the children in the world with cancer to get better, like me.

Love, Jojo xx

Find out more about the Kiss it Better appeal on our website and help raise money for research into the causes and treatment of childhood cancer.