Max's Story

Max was a happy and healthy child until he was around 2 and a half and he began complaining of tummy aches.

Several times we took him to the GP where we were told Max just has trapped wind.

On 3rd November we noticed blood in Max’s urine and again we went to the GP who this time agreed that this was concerning and sent us to the hospital for tests with a view to treating a severe urine infection.

After only an hour at the hospital a consultant felt max’s tummy and stated that she could feel a Mass on his side that shouldn’t be there and sent him for an ultra sound scan, this showed he had an 8cm tumour on his left kidney.

We were then transferred to Addenbrooke’s hospital where we spent 6 days with Max having CT and MRI scans confirming Max had Neuroblastoma, We were then told we could go home for some ‘normality’ before he would have his first surgery.

We came home and told his sisters what had been going on and tried to make sense of it all and have some family time.

On 9th Nov we were back at Addenbrookes where Max had day surgery to have a Hickman line inserted, 2 days later Max started Chemo, Max had 6 sessions of intense Chemo in the hope that the tumour would shrink to a safer and more manageable size to remove. This gave him severe pains in his legs and jaw, he was given morphine but unfortunately this didn’t take the pain away, max quickly lost a lot of weight and had 2 hospital admissions due to fevers.

Max then had a CT scan which showed that his tumour had in fact grown by 1cm! The consultants decided it was still necessary to have the surgery asap though would need to put extra precautions in place.

Surgery was scheduled for 15th December however, the evening before we received a phone call to say that it had to be cancelled due to the nursing strikes! Surgery went ahead on 17th, the operation took 7 hours where the surgeons removed the 9cm tumour, whole kidney and 27 lymph nodes around it.

Max’s operation site healed really well, he began eating more, slowly regaining some of the weight he had lost, though swiftly lost his beautiful hair through the chemotherapy.

The histology and tests they carried out on the tumour after removal showed that Max cancer was stage 3 which would require radiotherapy too.

Max had to have a blood transfusion prior to radiotherapy, He then completed 8 back to back sessions and was very brave remaining awake for each session on his own whilst we spoke to him over the speaker from another area.

Max went on to have a further 7 months of weekly chemotherapy and many more scans. He was able to reach the end of his treatment and ring the bell in July. We continue to be monitored 3 monthly with Ultrasounds and chest x-rays which so far have showed no signs of any reoccurrence.

Despite all he has been through Max continues to be a cheeky, happy little man, we are so excited about this break to the cotswolds thanks to the Ben Saunders Foundation.