BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts live from the GOSH Lagoon

Before the programme got underway, Alyssa took Naga on her own personal tour around GOSH to places that were special to her. Alyssa was in hospital for many months as she went through a number of different treatments for her leukaemia. Unfortunately, no standard treatments worked so in May 2022 she received the base-edited T-cells and then a bone marrow transplant. Over 6 months on from her treatment, she is in remission and continues her recovery at home with her family.

Alyssa took Naga and the BBC 5 Live team to Robin ward where they met the nurses and clinical staff who cared for her, along with artist Marina from Spread a Smile who decorates patient windows to keep their spirits up and Mr Brown from the cleaning team who saw Alyssa every day. The group then visited the Camelia Botnar Labs where Alyssa met the teams who processed and interpreted her many blood and bone marrow tests. Finally, they visited the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Diseases in Children (ZCR) to meet Prof Waseem Qasim who led the research that created Alyssa’s treatment.

When the radio show went live at 11am, Naga was joined by Alyssa’s family and her clinical team, Dr Robert Chiesa, Consultant in Bone Marrow Transplant and CAR T-cell therapy and Jan Chu, Senior Research Nurse, who talked about the huge number of people across the hospital who worked together to make the research and treatment successful for Alyssa. Other staff who supported Alyssa from the Play team, the Physio team, the GOSH School and the GOSH Children’s Charity also joined the show to explain the wraparound care and support all children at GOSH are provided with.

Finally, Alyssa got to meet therapy dogs Flo and Mabel, who visit patients at GOSH every week from the charity Pets as Therapy to bring joy and moral support to patients going through procedures.

You can listen back to the show on BBC Sounds for 30 days.