On Wednesday 28th May 2020 our lives were flipped upside down, We were told my 1 year old son has Cancer.

After a GP appointment to query Dillan’s swollen Lymphnodes, little purple dots around his eyes and the fact he still couldn’t walk from his ‘fracture’, we were sent straight to A&E, they checked his legs and found no reason he couldn’t walk, so did a blood test. It was then we were told every parents worst nightmare, Dillan has B-Cell Acute Lymphobastic Leukemia, 5 minutes after we were taken into a side room to be told, were sent by ambulance to Great Ormond Street, which is where we were living for 6 weeks after diagnosis.

Dillan started Chemotherapy straight away, and will do so for the next 3 years.

In the beginning I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and my anxiety attacks were daily, I couldn’t understand why this had happened to my healthy baby boy. But that attitude would have gotten me nowhere, so I have to look at the positives. Leukemia has a very high success rate of treatment, it’s also blood cancer so very easily accessible. Dillan is 1 so he will never remember any of this?, and because of his age he has no idea what’s going on so is taking it all in his stride.

People ask me how I’m being so strong through all of this, and honestly it’s watching Dillan. I’m so proud of how brave he’s being and the fact he just gets on with it, he’s having ups and downs, but is generally in good spirits and has adapted to hospital life really well.

Hopefully this next 3 years will go really quickly and we can put this behind us, and dillan can continue being a normal kid.

We are really blessed that we have the best children’s cancer hospital in the world looking after him. And even more blessed for amazing people out there who donate blood and platelets, that have ultimately saved Dillans life.

Dillan has shared care between our local hospital (The Royal London) and Great Ormond Street Hospital. I realised when switching between the two that the local hospitals are seriously under funded.

Dillan had an amazing sensory unit in his room at the local hospital, but i was told that it has to be shared out between the whole ward.

I asked for a play mat as Dillan still couldnt walk, and it helps build his strength when he's crawling, they only had one to share between the whole ward again?.

I asked about a tv as i thought all hospitals had those tv’s attached to a rod in the wall, but nope? They had one tv to share between the ward, it does'nt have tv channels, has to be wheeled into the room, and can play dvds only.

As a parent thats going through so much to begin with, you need to keep your child entertained as much as possible, especially on the bad days, and we have lots of them! , having to wait for things your child is asking for is a nightmare! So more tv’s would be amazing.

Play wise, Dillan cant go on the floor without a play mat due to infection risks, and if another child had the mat, he would have to stay in his cot? This would make us take 10 steps back with his physio. Great Ormond Street have them in every room!

The sensory units are really expensive, but helped Dillan so much at night, ours was broken, the projector did'nt work anymore, and there was no sound. But it was the only one they had, i would love to be able to raise money to get more of these. Not just for Royal London but for other local hospitals who have shared care with Oncology patients.

Dillan has to have chemo in his spine once a week, so has to be put to sleep with general anesthetic. Its the scariest day for the both of us! When we get to the Theatre Ward, Dillan knows. They make us wait in a little side room that has broken toys, and a little house thats basically a tent, with a house printed on the material. I would like to buy a brilliant play house for this room, and fill it with lots of amazing toys. It really is nerve wracking for the kids to be waiting in this room, so making it more fun to be in would make such a difference!

I would also love to be able to buy Electric ride on cars for all of the Childrens Cancer Wards, when we took dillans car into Great Ormond Street, the kids were all going mad for it. At Royal London they just have one plastic car to be shared between everybody again! And the one at Gosh looked about 10 years old.

lets dig deep and make a difference, i would be amazing to raise enough money to buy the above and more!