Teddy's Story

In July 2024, very suddenly our 3 year old son Teddy was really unwell with a high temp.

He's one of three so tonsilitis is common in our house, so I initially put it down to that, I made him a GP app for that day, but decided he needed seeing urgently, so I took him to the walk in centre where they said it was tonislitis.

I put him back in the car and something didn't sit right with me. I drove him to another hospital where I sat in a&e for 10 hours with him. When he was seen they admitted him, then tried to discharge us saying he had diarrhea and vomiting. I told them I just had a feeling it wasn't that, please can they do a blood test. They told me he didn't need one, but I insisted.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would find what they did. At 6am a Dr came in and started talking about white blood cells and lymphocytes. At this point I stopped him and said 'are you saying he's got cancer?'.

Another Dr came in and told us that he either has aplastic anaemia or leukaemia and we were transferred to Royal Manchester Children's hospital, where 24 hours later (and 3 days before his 4th birthday) they confirmed Teddy had B cell ALL. The hospital is an hour away from home if there's no traffic.

His initial treatment went well and he responded well, then we started to hit bumps on the road. He smashed induction and there was talk of going home early and coming in for treatment. The very same night Teddy was screaming in agony that he had tummy ache. We thought he was constipated, but his stomach blew up. The consultants said it was gas so fitted an NG tube. It made no difference.

After 2 days they scanned him and his appendix had ruptured. They couldn't operate because of his condition as the wound wouldn't heal, so they fitted a drain in his tummy to drain the toxic fluid, and fitted a catheter. He was given every pain drug imaginable but for days nothing touched his pain. He stopped eating, so they fed him through the NG tube, but he was throwing everything up. So he was nil by mouth but lost so much weight he was put on PN.

In the 9 or so days he was bed bound, he regressed back to like having a newborn. Not only could he not walk, he couldn't sit or hold his head up.

Since then, we have had a lot of bumps in the road. The most recent has been very high ALT readings (liver enzyme) so we are in a worrying time of being off chemo while a new treatment plan is figured out.

Throughout everything Teddy's grit and determination has been astounding. He has thrived and flourished with his sisters and school friends. He only ever misses school when he's in hospital. He never stops, and he never complains. He's is such a daft lad, and always has anyone around him in stitches. We are all in awe of him. He says when he's a grown up he wants to be a paediatric oncologist. 💛

We are so grateful to Bens foundation for this weekend as a family and make some more happy memories.