A mum, whose daughter was diagnosed with a rare cancer, claims she is now too "scared to leave the house" after being targeted by bullies.

Lucie Thomson has been the subject of a tirade of bullying since she went back to school in November following her last surgery to remove a brain tumour. Her mum Jayne Fagan said it has got so bad that she has even taken the 14 year old out of school for the time being. Last Monday things took a dramatic when Lucie went to meet a friend after school hours outside King's Leadership Academy Hawthornes, where her sister attends, and an altercation happened between a group of girls, resulting in Lucie being injured.

A video of the altercation, which we have chosen not to share, shows a group of girls fighting amongst themselves as a group of bystanders watch and video. Shouting can be heard before an adult appears to come and split the incident up. Some of the girls appear to be wearing school uniforms while one girl, who is not wearing a uniform, walks off holding her head.

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Following the incident, a horrifying message was sent to Lucie's mum Jayne, 36, saying "If [your] ma's kid can't fight [because] she's got cancer tell her to f**k off jumping in a fight." Jayne claims the incident has left her daughter refusing to leave the house in fear, and the family are now looking to move home away from Bootle. She said: "We want a fresh start. She has been targeted online to the point Lucie has now given up her phone up because it's too much for her."

Lucie was told she had a rare brain tumour and only a 15% chance of survival back in March 2021, after complaining of toothache and double vision. When Jayne took the then 10-year-old to the dentist, she noticed her eye "completely inverted" and immediately rushed her to the opticians to see what was going on. It was here that a scan showed the discs behind Lucie's eye were swollen and the optician told dad Liam Thomson, 37, to take her to Alder Hey Children's Hospital straight away.

Jayne, who met her partner Liam 19 years ago and shares four children with him, told the Liverpool Echo: "We knew something was wrong so her dad took her to the opticians. He phoned me and said 'pack a bag, we need to go to hospital'. They found her eye was swollen and it indicated something was wrong with her brain. We went to Alder Hey where they did an MRI and found a ball sized tumour, they operated on her night that."

Lucie went on to be discharged and have regular three-month check ups, but 15 months later the tumour returned in the same place. Jayne said: "She had another nine hour long surgery to remove it again. They sent us to Clatterbridge for radiotherapy and once that was finished we were in remission. She rang the bell. Then last year it came back again and we found out she had ependymoma, which is a rare type of tumour that develops in the brain or spinal cord. She had another operation in September last year to remove it."

In November 2024 Lucie returned to school - at Hillside High School in Bootle - but this is when the alleged bullying began by girls from another school. The mum says Hillside High School has been "excellent" at supporting the family through everything. Lucie's diagnosis has been "more than" most adults go through in their lifetime. Her mum added that it's now "heartbreaking" to have to watch her daughter suffer at school as well.

She said: "She is very poorly, she is doing well in herself mentally but she feels like she is just watching life pass her by, she can't go to school, she is scared to go anywhere. It's been so hard as a family. Me and my partner have both had to quit our jobs to care for Lucie. Every time we get back to normal and her cancer goes away, it comes back and were back to the beginning. She has been through more than what most adults have been through in their entire lives.

"She has lost her childhood. She lost her hair. She keeps saying 'what is the point in all of this if my cancer is just going to come back'. I don't want her to lose hope. It's heartbreaking for my 14-year-old girl to be going through this. It's hard. We can’t even go shopping as a normal family, we can't go out as a family. We don't get any respite. And for her to go through bullying on top of all this, it's horrible. Bullying would be bad enough but on top of all this. She is scared to go out, she won't go out with her friends, I don't know what it's going to be like when she goes back to school."

Jayne added: "It makes me feel sick, I feel like I've failed. She is trying to act like any other teenager but she is finding it difficult, she said she feels different, she is finding it hard to make friends with people too because children her age don't understand why they are different to her. I can't name another person who has been through what she has been through. I want to protect her but it's hard."

In a statement a spokesperson for King's Leadership Academy Hawthornes said: “We are aware of an incident outside of school hours on Fernhill Road involving four girls, two of whom are students at King’s Hawthornes on March 10. The safety and well-being of our students is a priority, and our safeguarding team is working with the relevant authorities to address the issues around this isolated incident. In the meantime, we understand that there have been moves by the families of those involved to constructively and amicably resolve the matter.”

A spokesperson for Hillside High School said: "At Hillside High School we are committed to preventing all forms of bullying in order to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all. We work hard to ensure that bullying of any kind, whether that be physical, verbal or online, plays no part in our community, by proactively dealing with all pupils, their families and staff to eradicate and promptly address all reported incidents. If any member of our school community is concerned about bullying outside of school we would remind them that they should always contact us. Kindness, respect and empathy are at the forefront of everything we do as we strive towards our commitment to achieving ‘Excellence in the Heart of the Community.’"

has launched an investigation following an altercation involving children in Bootle on Monday, March 10, A spokesperson for the force said: "At around 3.20pm, it was reported that two 14-year-old girls were assaulted by another girl of a similar age on Wordsworth Street. The incident was reported to police and enquiries are being carried out to establish the full circumstances of what happened. Thankfully there were no serious injuries."