Ollie

"We first heard of the Children with Cancer Fund the day after our sons diagnosis, when the Clic Sargent Social Worker said to us that we were lucky to live in East Sussex as there was a fantastic charity there that would pay for our car parking permit for a year.

And now we realise how lucky we were to have them there by our side throughout. Our son, was diagnosed with an “unusual” combination of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)about seven weeks before his fourth birthday. His only symptom was a swollen testicle which I noticed by chance when he was playing in the bath.

I initially took him to the out of hours doctor on a Saturday and we were called back to the children’s ward on the Tuesday for blood tests and a scan. We waited for what seemed like hours before I was taken a side and told that blasts had been found in his blood – he had leukaemia. We were blue lighted that night to the Royal Marsden in Sutton.

He responded really well to treatment and after many ups and downs over the next 3 ½ years he finished treatment in January 2016. His older brother Daniel had some art therapy for 24 weeks in 2015 to help him with his anxieties, he still fears when his brother goes for check-ups. They now are able to have a normal brother relationship, argue, fight, wrestle, which is great. More recently he has begun to suffer from anxiety.

He worries constantly about not being perfect and getting things wrong. We are working with him to boost his confidence and self-esteem and help him remember what an amazingly strong and resilient boy he is.

We have made some amazing friends through our days out with the Children with Cancer Fund and the best thing is that everyone we meet knows exactly what we are talking about as they have been there too.”

-Ollie’s mum