Back in November 2016 my eldest son (then age 12) had been complaining of headaches and nausea/being sick over a period of a couples of weeks and was having time off school as a result. After a few trips to see his neurologist (he had already been diagnosed earlier in the year with a focal cortical dysplasia, that would have been there since his brain was forming in utero - resulting in short circuiting in the electrical activity of the brain, causing epileptic type seizures), and as there's a family history of migraines, it was put down to being a bad case of migraine.

On 29th November, my son woke me up early hours of the morning screaming in pain, holding the right side of his head and vomiting/retching. I finally settled him down with some painkillers (thinking it was another migraine) only for me to get up a couple of hours later to find him unresponsive and unable to wake him up . After checking him over I noticed he'd been sick in his sleep, his breathing was laboured and his right pupil had blown.... an ambulance was called straight away, who arrived very quickly, and took us straight down to Bristol Children's Hospital a&e. He was attached to many wires, a breathing tube inserted and taken for a CT scan and straight into emergency surgery. He'd had a bleed on the brain!

The next time I saw him was hours later in ICU. I was told by the surgeon that they removed the clot caused by the bleed along with a large mass, of which a biopsy was sent off for testing. It was in the same area as his cortical dysplasia!

He made a quick recovery and only spent 5 days in hospital, and didn't need any additional help. I'm not 100% sure, and it's not been confirmed, but I'm thinking that having the cortical dysplasia meant his brain had already rewired itself anyway... so he didn't need any form of rehabilitation.

A week after he was discharged we were called back into the hospital to see a doctor in Oncology for the results of the biopsy.. I've heard that word before so I immediately knew what that meant! But I hoped it wasn't that... Then the doctor dealt me the blow that's every mothers nightmare.... my child has cancer!!

He has been diagnosed with a Grade 4 Glioblastoma... a fast growing aggressive brain tumour. He's only just turned 13!!

Apparently children with a cortical dysplasia can later develop a brain tumour, it just so happens that his started growing a month or two after his initial diagnosis (and there was nothing to suggest a tumour on his original MRI)
We had no idea that it would be lurking there, silently getting bigger over the next 4 months!!

He's currently undergoing a course of radiotherapy and oral chemotherapy and is being so brave and strong about it all. He told me the other day that he's going to stick his finger up at cancer and kick its ass!! He certainly isn't gonna let it get the better of him that's for sure. And it's that strong spirit that is keeping me going.

So to give something back to the charity that is looking after us at the hospital, I thought that I would do some fundraising on behalf of CLIC.

Please make a donation for this great cause, it really doesn't have to be a lot, a few pence to a few quid, but everything helps. Thank you :)



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