Severe arthritis girl, 12, selected to play in the National Children's Orchestra

Thrilled: GOSH patient Becky Parkin and fellow French horn player Sarah Willis
Rashid Razaq11 November 2016

A girl who was on a life-support machine for three days after being taken to hospital last Christmas with a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis has been selected to play with the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain.

Becky Parkin, 12, of Twickenham, has suffered from juvenile idiopathic arthritis since she was four. Her mother Alison said that at its worst the condition left Becky with painful swelling all over her body and unable to walk.

But with treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital and weekly injections she was able to attend primary school and took up the French horn.

Mrs Parkin said: “She was in remission for three years and doing fine. The consultant said she could even grow out of it altogether. Then just as she started secondary school she got ill. It got worse over Christmas and we went to our local hospital, the West Middlesex.

“Then on New Year’s Eve she completely crashed. Her blood pressure was off the scale and she was transferred to Great Ormond Street by ambulance. The staff were brilliant and immediately you could see she was getting better but it was a very difficult time.”

Becky spent a month in hospital — and had to use a wheelchair — before she could go home. She has now returned to Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton and is playing with the under-12s National Children’s Orchestra and the London Regional Orchestra.

At the Lord Mayor’s Show tomorrow Becky and four other GOSH patients will be on the Premier Inn UK float after helping to raise £7.5 million towards a new clinical building at the hospital.

Mrs Parkin, whose other children with husband Peter are Rahul, 18, and Anita, 15, said playing music helped lift Becky’s spirits and she was thrilled to meet Sarah Willis, a French horn player with the Berlin Philharmonic, last month.

“Becky got a place on the orchestra just before she got ill again but they were fantastic and held it open for her,” said Mrs Parkin. “She missed a lot of school last year and can’t do sport like she used to but she loves music as it’s a chance for her to be like everybody else".

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