Alex went to visit his Grandma and Granddad one sunny Wednesday in July 2008 with Mum and brother Matthew. Just your average nearly-three-year-old; full of mischief, attitude and fun. Though never average to us of course. As things were to turn out, by the time he'd been transferred from MIddlesbrough to Alder Hey in Liverpool just 3 days later, our's and his little worlds had been turned upside-down. Alex had been diagnosed with a pontine glioblastoma. A brain tumour. Cancer. By the time we got to quietly celebrate his 3rd birthday later that month we'd been to Clatterbridge to prepare for radiotherapy sessions and had agreed for him to be entered into a Chemotherapy trial. A "trial" because there wasn't enough history of beautiful little boys of three with gliomas....
Just before Christmas we were at a regular review at Alder Hey when we came to realise just how much we'd been secretly hoping for a miracle when Alex's chemotherapy was halted. It wasn't making his condition any better and so it was decided that he should be spared the drugs that had made him so ravenously hungry for pie & broccoli, and bloated his little body and face. All of a sudden we had nothing to hang onto. Our immediate thought was that we should take him away on holiday now that we didn't have to be at Clatterbridge for 8:30 every morning. Alex though was too poorly to fly anyplace warm but the CLIC Sargent worker at Alder Hey told us about Debbie & Steve Riley and the fund they'd set-up to remember and honour their daughter Nicola who they'd lost to a similar condition in 2005. So in January 2009 we all headed off to Centre Parcs in Sherwood Forest for a break organised at short notice by Nicola's Fund. It was freezing cold and 'though Alex wasn't up to anything strenuous he had a great time feeding the ducks outside the lodge each morning, and laughing like a drain as he rode about the park in a buggy behind Dad's bicycle. Despite the uncertainty we faced we did manage to relax a little for a few days.
Alex died on the 6th of October 2009, peacefully and at home which was all we could ever realistically have asked for. He always liked to buy his Mum flowers on shopping trips to the supermarket but wasn't keen on them himself so before the funeral we asked for donations to Nicola's Fund instead of flowers so that we could repay the kindness shown by Debbie & Steve. Other friends and colleagues have raised further money and yet more are proposing to do charity runs in Alex's name. For them we've agreed to write these few words about our beautiful boy so that further donations can be sent on, and allow "Nicola's love and concern for other children" to continue. Thank You Debbie, Steve & Nicola
THANKS TO YOU ALSO FOR TAKING THE TIME TO VISIT ALEX'S PAGE...
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Thank You
Mike & Julie McFarlane
and Alex x
