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Alex's family said:

In February of this year I took Alex to A&E because he had bumped his arm and it had swollen up and he was unable to move it without sever pain. The doctor was concerned he had broken it so sent him for X-Rays. We had one set of X-Rays done and they sent us to wait outside, 5 minutes later they called us back in to do some more. It was when we went back to the doctor in A&E that he gave me the devastating news that they was a large unusual looking tumour growing inside Alex's left humerus and it was causing fractures in the bone where it was growing. After this things moved quickly. Ales was referred to Addenbrookes hospital and the Royal National Orthopedic hospital in Stanmore. Within days we made the trip to London to have a bone biopsy done, CT scans and a full body MRI.

The results showed Alex has a very rare type of cancer not usually seen in children called Mallignant Perpheral Nerve Sheath Tumour (MPNST) or it is referred to as a Triton Tumour. Alex had a Hickman line fitted and started chemotherapy a few days later. He had 2 rounds of chemotherapy and then major surgery to remove the tumour, unfortunately they had to take away almost all of his humerus and shoulder ball joint as the cancer had damaged the bone too badly. They placed a metal rod to keep his arm stable but he has lost almost all function of his shoulder and has limited movement in his elbow. He had a short period of recovery then started chemotherapy again, which made him sick and required lots of hospital admissions for fevers and blood and platelet transfusions. Chemotherapy finished in July and doctors decided that they want to give Alex Radiotherapy as well to give him the best chance of recovery. He will have 31 sessions in total, we have completed 15 so far. This means 75 mile round trips to Addenbrookes 5 days a week for 6 weeks. The final stage of Alex's treatment will be reconstructive surgery on his arm, it will help him have slightly better movement but will never function properly again. We have been warned that his particular cancer has a high recurrence rate so he will be monitored very closely from now on.

Alex has shown so much courage and bravery throughout treatment and faced things no child should ever have to worry about, we are all so proud of him.