Alfred's Story

At 4 years old in January 2024, our little boy Alfred had some tummy aches that wouldn’t go away. After just three trips to the doctors we were referred to the hospital for testing and Alfred was diagnosed with high risk neuroblastoma – an aggressive cancer with a less than ideal prognosis. His tumour was the size of a watermelon and he had metastases on his liver and lung.

Alfred battled through aggressive induction chemo, abdominal surgery to remove the main tumour, high dose chemo that wiped out his bone marrow as well as a life-saving stem cell transplant, 20 sessions of radiotherapy and months of immunotherapy. Followed by another 8 months of chemotherapy and immunotherapy together during his relapse treatment. Somehow Alfred kept his joy for life throughout serious complications that caused sickness, loss of appetite, Veno-occlusive disease, infertility and dangerous levels of pressure behind the eyes.

One year into treatment we received the news that Alfred’s cancer had relapsed, taking his chances of survival down to a small percentage. We kept hopeful and spent the next 8 months undertaking relapse treatment in the UK while looking for opportunities overseas that might give us more of a chance.

Throughout all this Alfred carried on living his best life. He had always wanted to be a farmer and enjoyed looking after his vegetables and herb garden at home. He enjoyed trips to the Lake District, Norfolk and Cornwall, going up mountains, inside mines, to the beach and playing in fields and woods. He started school and loved crafts and thinking up great inventions. He spent time with his family and friends, getting up early every morning he was at home to play with his sister and make cake mix out of anything he could find in the kitchen. He loved scooting all over the hospital site at Addenbrookes and while on treatment, loved visits to the local garden centre and museums in Cambridge. He loved his local clinic visits because the hospital visit meant he got to order his favourite Subway and have fun with his medical team there.

Even when bedbound and in isolation, Alfred still managed to have fun, making friends with hospital staff and other patients, playing with his favourite toy Mee Mee, watching Wallace and Gromit films, playing hide and seek in his hospital room, learning about volcanoes and earthquakes and coming up with new crafts and inventions. For people on the outside looking in, it was hard to believe how ill Alfred was, as he really didn’t let cancer and hospital get in the way of having a great time.

Alfred’s Legacy

Solving Kids Cancer UK have been an incredible support throughout our family’s cancer journey and after Alfred’s death. They were on hand to help us understand the diagnosis and treatment, as well as helping us look at international trials and treatments and hosting opportunities for us to connect as a family and get to know others in a similar position to us.

Solving Kids' Cancer UK also invest in world-leading research to help make sure that children like Alfred have a better chance of beating neuroblastoma in the future.