Oliver's Story

On the 12th January 2025, we were given the devastating news that our little boy Oliver, who was just two at the time was being diagnosed with Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Oliver’s symptoms came on really quickly, and they all could have easily been something else - he had had the sniffles on and off, but it was winter and he was at nursery. He had a couple of new bruises but again, he was two years old and constantly on the go. It was only when a strange pin prick rash appeared that was spreading fast, that we took him to A&E to be examined.

The last thing we ever expected to hear was that it was cancer.

We left straight away for Alderhey children’s hospital for Oliver to be admitted as an inpatient and to start chemotherapy. Not only did it feel like our world had been turned upside, but at 36 weeks pregnant I didn’t know how we were going to cope.

That first night was traumatising, his little veins were too small to place a cannula and after many, many failed attempts throughout the night the decision was made to stop, and to take him down to theatre the next day for long lines to be placed. I didn’t sleep a single second, and stayed awake all night in utter disbelief and shock.

Just four days after he was diagnosed, I went into preterm labour with Oliver’s little sister, and had to leave Oliver at Alderhey with his dad to carry on treatment to go for an emergency c-section. Poppy arrived into the world safely, but needed extra support and spent the next nine days in neonatal. To have two babies both in different hospitals and both needing me felt impossible.

Oliver developed a blood clot in February of last year as a rare side effect of one of his chemotherapy’s, that hospitalised him for a week and rendered his port-a-cath un-useable for months afterwards, meaning lots of long lines and added trauma and stress of having these constantly refitted.

Induction treatment was brutal, and he stopped speaking, and lost the ability to walk or even to stand from sitting. I honestly don’t remember an awful lot from those early days, whether that’s the fact I was freshly postpartum, or from the shock I don’t know - but it’s probably a good thing, as most of what I do remember I wish I didn’t.

Oliver is now on maintenance chemotherapy, which consists of daily and weekly oral chemotherapy, and (hopefully) has around 11 months of treatment to go. He is doing really well, and makes us proud every single day. To think back to where he was this time last year, to where he is now blows us away every day.

It can be really hard to look forward to things, or to even make big plans never knowing if Oliver is going to be well, or needing to be admitted to hospital with a temperature, so we are really grateful to Bens foundation for offering us this chance to get away and make some lovely memories as a family.

Thank you x