Top trainer's daughter, 8, rings bell after finishing treatment in lengthy cancer fight
Top racehorse trainer Christian Williams and partner Charlotte Smith are celebrating helping the most precious member of their stable across the finish line. And they're marking it by taking off on their first family holiday in two and a half years.
In April 2023 Christian made headlines when star jumper Kitty's Light won the Scottish Grand National and bet365 Gold Cup within the space of seven days. Yet behind the scenes there was a much more important race to be won as a month earlier, he and Charlotte were told their youngest daughter Betsy, then five, had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare but aggressive type of blood cancer.
The diagnosis emerged after Betsy developed an ear infection. At first her declining health was put down to a virus until, on her third GP visit, she was sent to hospital - where blood tests confirmed her parents' worst fears.
Over a gruelling 27 months, Betsy underwent a bone marrow biopsy, blood transfusions and then started cycles of chemotherapy involving lumbar punctures and steroids, until this month when the now eight-year-old reached a significant landmark when she rang the bell on the Rainbow Ward at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital in Cardiff to signal the end of her treatment.
'We were given the date she would finish right at the start, and we'd been working to May 13 2025, provided there were no complications,' says NHS physio Charlotte, 40.
'She finished on that day and we were so excited. But then two days later she got Covid. It was probably the most poorly she had ever been in the whole two years.
'It was absolutely terrifying. She was in hospital for two weeks, really, really ill. They were convinced there was something else going on. They were running all these tests and scans. I thought she had relapsed already.
'And they came back and said, 'Charlotte, we've looked at everything and everything is negative, apart from this positive Covid swab.' It wasn't the plan we had for the end of the treatment but she is doing really well now, thank goodness.'
Throughout this period, against the odds, Christian managed to keep the winners flowing from his yard at Ogmore-by-Sea on the Glamorgan coast.
None was more vital than the success of Kitty's Light at Ayr. 'Betsy was having a particularly tough day but I turned on the TV as I thought it would cheer her up to see her Daddy on TV,' recalls Charlotte. 'To our delight he won. It completely changed our perspective and gave us hope.'
Williams, 42, says: 'We've been lucky as when Betsy was ill and the family were down, we have managed to get a winner somewhere and not all families can look forward to days like that.
'We've just been in survival mode this whole time. Everyone pulled up their sleeves. I'm not sure how we've managed, really.'
He adds: 'The drugs take your daughter away from you so now she is coming off the chemo and the steroids we are slowly getting her back.'
Charlotte reflects: 'Christian has been unbelievable. I was fortunate to have sick pay and could take time off work to give my full attention to Betsy and our other daughter Tilly.
'Christian didn't have that option. He had 10 members of staff who relied on their wages, the owners relied on us, too.
'I couldn't tie my own shoe laces for the first couple of weeks, whereas Christian would be getting up every day, making sure he was with us in hospital, running a stable, liaising with owners and going racing. I don't know how he did it, to be honest. 'He has managed to sustain that, be a support to us and, not just keep the business going, but been really successful, too.'
Betsy has won admiration as well for the way she has dealt with serious illness so early in her life.
'The whole time she has never wanted to be seen as ill, never wanted to be different to anybody else,' says Charlotte.
On her sixth birthday, when friends organised a parkrun, Betsy insisted on running the whole 2km course. She had already started chemotherapy.
'How she acted then was the way she acted through the whole two years,' Charlotte adds. 'She still wanted to run, still wanted to go to school, still wanted to do dance. She never used her illness as an excuse not to do things.'
There are still challenges ahead but Charlotte says: 'We've rung the bell and are ecstatic that that phase of our life is over. It may take a while for us to transition from that but Betsy is living her normal life.'
As a treat the family have taken a rare holiday to Dubai. 'We are going for nine days and we can't wait,' she says. 'Just the four of us. No phones, no work and just enjoy each other.
'We are looking forward to living, making new memories and hopefully this is all going to be a distant memory to Betsy.'
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