A friendship that transcends age – Mia and Vinnie’s story

When 17-year-old Mia was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 14, it  felt like cancer was forcing her to grow up far too quickly. Almost overnight, the fun, carefree experiences of childhood were suddenly replaced by gruelling treatment and long hospital days. 

But thanks to an unexpected friendship with six-year-old Vinnie, a fellow patient on Rainbow Ward,  Mia remembered what it was to be child again.

Mia met Vinnie while they were both receiving treatment at the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales. Though eleven years separated them in age, they quickly formed an extraordinary friendship. What started with a simple common love of the film Monsters Inc, evolved into a mutually supportive relationship that saw them both through some of the hardest days of their lives.

Mia says:  “I think at the age I was diagnosed I could have easily sat in my room on my phone and not engaged. But Vinnie gave me an excuse to be a child again. It made everything I was going through that little bit less hard. It would have been easy for cancer to make me grow up really quickly, but playing with all the children on the ward meant I could still have fun and just be my age.”

Vinnie’s family received his diagnosis in November 2023, after weeks of unexplained symptoms. What started as pain in his legs, became worse as the weeks wore on. He was finding it an increasing struggle to walk, was short of breath and developed swollen lymph nodes. After returning to his GP, Vinnie was rushed to his local hospital where he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Though he started chemotherapy immediately, it was three months before his body began to respond.

In the next bed to Vinnie was Mia, who had recently been diagnosed with another variant of leukemia – T-cell ALL.

Their friendship began with a teddy bear. Mia had a Sully teddy from Monsters, Inc, Vinnie’s favourite film. She would wave Sully’s paw from across the ward, making him smile whenever he saw her. At her next appointment, she brought in her Mike Wazowski toy to “babysit” Vinnie whenever she wasn’t in hospital, before surprising him with his very own personalised Mike Wazowski to keep forever. From there, their friendship blossomed.

As they spent more time together, Vinnie became Mia’s biggest supporter. Whenever she had her dressing changed or port accessed, Vinnie would stand beside the nurses, placing his hands over theirs before asking Mia if she was in any pain.

For Vinnie, Mia became someone to look up to. His mum, Sarah, said:  “Mia was a big sister to Vinnie. He watched how she had her dressing changes, how she had her port accessed and how she took her medication. She showed him those scary things weren’t so frightening.”

The friendship changed Mia too. Before her diagnosis, she laughs that younger children often annoyed her. Now, after spending so much time with Vinnie and the other children on Rainbow Ward, she hopes to become a paediatric nurse. When completing coursework for her Health and Social Care qualification, Mia even created a healthy eating game inspired by Vinnie, who happily helped test it. She achieved an A+.

The friendship soon extended beyond Mia and Vinnie. Their mums, Jade and Sarah, found comfort in one another as they navigated the uncertainty of childhood cancer together. Sarah said: “We’re trauma bonded for life.”

Together, the two mums created a group chat called Rainbow Rants, and whenever both families were admitted and Vinnie had fallen asleep, Sarah would take his baby monitor into Mia’s room so she and Jade could spend the evening chatting. Mia’s mum, Jade, said: “We kept each other sane. I would have gone crazy without her.”

Like their children, both mums understood each other’s fears in a way few others could. Jade said:”Before diagnosis we had lots of friends around us, but when you go through something like this you lose a lot of those people because they can’t relate.”

Today, the two families are more like one family. They’ve celebrated Christmas together, holidayed together and continue to support one another through every appointment, setback and milestone. They all agree that their friendships grew thanks to the opportunities children have to play together while receiving treatment.

Thanks to its supporters, the Noah’s Ark Charity is able to support the work of the therapeutic and specialised play service and deliver ‘Sparkle’ activities on and off the wards for children and families. Jade and Sarah say that these opportunities have helped children and young people spend time together through activities that focus on who they are and what their interests are rather than their age. For Mia and Vinnie, whether they were making slime, meeting therapy dogs, or simply laughing together between treatments, were moments that allowed them to build a friendship that stretched far beyond the years that separate them.

Today, Mia and Vinnie are inseparable. They’ve spent Christmas together, gone on holidays as families and, earlier this summer, six-year-old Vinnie proudly escorted Mia to her school prom, wearing a matching suit. Last month, the two families joined together as a team to raise funds as part of the Noah’s Ark Charity Superhero 5K Fun Day, raising almost £500.

Jade said:  “That’s the amazing thing about the Noah’s Ark Charity –  it brings people together from completely different backgrounds who have this shared connection. The charity helps create those opportunities for relationships like this to develop.” Jade said.

Born eleven years apart but with a bond that looks set to last a lifetime, Mia and Vinnie are proof that friendship doesn’t have an age limit and that we all have more in common than what sets us apart.