Rory’s Story

Rory hadn’t been himself for about a month, he’d been tired and had little appetite but when we noticed that his stomach was also becoming hard and swollen, we knew something was really wrong.

Scans and a biopsy were hastily arranged by the amazing team at Edinburgh’s RHCYP and then it was confirmed: Burkitt’s Lymphoma. We’d gone from thinking our son had some sort of bad virus to a cancer diagnosis within 24 hours and he was about to embark on the first of six cycles of chemotherapy. It was the first week in December and he’d need to spend at least the next six weeks as an in-patient.

The first intensive round of chemo had to be delayed as he developed tumour lysis syndrome and had to spend time in ICU. Amazingly, he made his way back to the oncology ward in time to see Santa on Christmas Eve.

After a very different Christmas, the new year begun and slowly but surely our brave boy battled through. Despite horrible side effects, chemo was successful and in June they were able to remove his Hickmann Line. He was even able to visit his class for a few hours before school broke up for the summer holidays.

We feel so blessed that he remains in remission and can’t thank the Ben Saunders Foundation enough for allowing us to spend some precious family time together in the beautiful Cotswolds.