Caiden's Story

Caiden was a fit and athletic 14yo with two younger brothers. He played football and cricket regularly earning a number of trophies and awards aswell as going out on hikes, recently completing the Yorkshire three peaks.

In October Caiden complained about a toothache/sore mouth. This lasted a couple of weeks so we made an emergency dentist appointment where he received antibiotics. The pain let up briefly however returned and was getting worse.

A second dental appointment was made where the dentist immediately referred him to the hospital. We weren’t sure why at first but the following day the dentist contacted us and stated it could he cancer. At this news we took him straight to Harrogate A+E as we weren’t prepared to wait for the referral.

From there he was sent to York Hospital for a biopsy (which also happened to be on his 15th birthday). Later in November we received the news that Caiden had stage IV oral squamous cell carcinoma. The consultants, surgeons and nurses had never seen this in a child before as the vast majority of people diagnosed are 60+ and have smoked and/or drank for years - both of which Caiden has never done.

There were two options given to us to tackle this. Either intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment or surgery. The surgery was major and involved removing the majority of the tongue aswell as a neck dissection to remove lymph nodes. We (parents and Caiden) chose this option to give him the best chance of beating it.

He was admitted into LGI whilst waiting for surgery as the pain was difficult to manage and he could no longer eat. Unfortunately during this time the tumour grew rapidly and after having a scan a few days before surgery was due we were told it was no longer an option. Chemotherapy was started immediately after with three rounds given before starting a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This treatment was gruelling and took a lot out of Caiden and us all as a family. The risks and side effects of radiation to the head and neck are brutal but Caiden showed strength and resilience far beyond his years.

In total Caiden received 8 rounds of chemotherapy and 35 rounds of radiotherapy. Since treatment started Caiden has not been able to talk, eat or drink. He has a feeding tube in his stomach which he continues to use currently - the hope is he will return to eating and talking in the future once side effects reduce.

Caiden’s last treatment was in March and we’re currently waiting for a scan (end of this month) and the results to see if treatment has been successful.

This is the first time we’ve been able to go out/away as a family for a long time so thanks to the Ben Saunders Foundation for this!