Felicia gets to do her work experience – on TV’s Daybreak show (From Echo)

Felicia gets to do her work experience – on TV’s Daybreak show

7:00pm Monday 13th February 2012 in News By Emma Thomas

A BRAVE teenager whose ambition is to be a TV presenter is due on TV tomorrow morning, to talk about her battle with a rare illness.

Felicia Cantone, 14, has been invited on to ITV’s Daybreak breakfast show to talk about her condition, a rare form of bone cancer, called Ewing’s sarcoma – after her mum asked TV producers if she could get a work experience placement there.

The Leigh teenager was diagnosed with the disease at the age of seven and her right leg was amputated to prevent the disease spreading.

Felicia, who goes to Belfairs High School, Leigh, refuses to allow her illness to it hold her back.

Her mum, Samantha Kaya, 45, said: “She is taking her options this year and I have been writing letters and trying to get her some work experience placements.

“I wrote to Daybreak because they have been doing a lot on disability. The editor phoned me and said she would love to have Felicia on the show.

“It’s all about seeing the positive side of the disability. Felicia never sees the negative side. Sometimes, I think she forgets she only has one leg. She was sledging down at Chalkwell station last week. She is in an unusual situation, but she doesn’t let it get her down.

“There are not enough disabled people in the public eye really.

“I think if there were a few more, it would give other disabled people more of a positive outlook. It would give them somebody to look up to.”

Felicia’s cancer is now in remission after two courses of a pioneering therapy at the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Mexico.

The treatment involved filtering Felicia’s blood to remove toxins, particularly chemotherapy drugs which had built up in her body from previous treatments.

Each course costs £20,000 and her family are fundraising so she can undergo a third treatment to ensure her current good health continues.

Mrs Kaya added: “We are still trying to raise awareness and raise funds for her.

“On Daybreak, they are going to talk about her disability and the fact she wants to be a television presenter.

“I am nervous, but she doesn’t appear to be. She is quite excited, though.”