Rangers youth player who beat cancer dreams of playing for Chelsea

A Rangers youth player who overcame a rare form of cancer dreams of one day starring for Chelsea.

Morven Macdonald, 11, also wants to have won multiple Ballon d'Or's - the annual award for the world's best player - by the time she is 21.

Speaking in a new film by national childhood cancer charity Children with Cancer UK, she said: "I achieve high".

Morven was just seven years old when she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in January 2019.

Two months earlier her mother, Cara, noticed a slight drooping in her daughter's left eyelid.

Thinking it was the development of a lazy eye, she took Morven to the optician.

Cara recalled: "In just a few weeks, the drooping eyelid had drooped down further and had begun to bulge outwards and had turned purple.

"We were very alarmed by the appearance of the eye and chased up for an MRI."

The scan revealed a tumour and a biopsy was carried out.

Cara adds: "A very long and terrifying week later we were given the results that it was cancer.

"It was found the cancer was localised but would need immediate treatment of nine rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

"Our world was turned upside down."

Morven recalls how she had treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London before returning home to Glasgow for the final stages to be near her family.

And in September 2020 she was given the news that it had been a success.

Cara said: "She is now almost three years all clear and we can’t even believe it happened. All we can do is hope and pray she stays well."

Morven, who appears in the film playing football in her garden, said her greatest achievement was signing for the Ibrox club.

She explained: "My family are big Rangers fans and since I was young, I’d always think 'I want to be playing for them'.

"I’ve always tried to achieve to try and get there."

As a side effect of her treatment Morven has been left with light sensitivity in her left eye and wears special black goggles for training and matches.

She said: "I use them to play football because my eye is really sensitive to the light.

"So whenever it is really sunny they go dark."

Asked about her dream, Morven said: "To play for Chelsea and have five Ballon d’Ors when I’m 21. I achieve high."

The London club, founded in 1992, are the reigning Women's Super League champions.

Sarcomas are rare types of cancer that develop in the supporting tissues of the body, such as bone, muscle or cartilage.

There are two main types of sarcoma - soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcoma - but more than half of all soft tissue sarcoma diagnosed in childhood are rhabdomyosarcoma.

The new film on soft tissue sarcoma is part of the charity's 12 Groups of Cancer campaign.

Amar Naher, chief executive of Children with Cancer UK, said it was delighted Morven was helping during Sarcoma Awareness Month.

He added: "We believe that every child and young person deserves to have their whole life ahead of them, but cancer is still the biggest cause of death in children under the age of 15.

"Faster diagnosis of childhood, teenage and young adult cancers, and better, kinder treatments mean more children will survive without the life-inhibiting side effects that can often come with remission."

Meanwhile, Morven hopes other children will draw inspiration from her experience.

She said: "Just because you are in the hospital it doesn’t mean you have to stop.

"Whenever you get a chance, get out, keep fit and just do the things you want to do.

"You don’t need to think of yourself as different to anyone else."