Treatment4Toby

Tobias Duncan-Hambolu was born on 28th Sept 2016 and is the son of one of my colleagues in Manchester. We are fundraising to give him a chance of the future he deserves.

Toby was only 8 weeks old when his GP picked up on a lump at his routine baby check. Unfortunately this turned out to be Infantile Fibrosarcoma, an extremely rare, malignant (cancerous) tumour that originates in the connective fibrous tissue that spreads rapidly. Toby has been receiving treatment from Manchester Children’s Hospital and has already had numerous operations and two courses of chemotherapy despite being only 8 months old. The first round of chemotherapy was unsuccessful and he grew 3 new tumours in a matter of weeks. While he is so far responding to the latest round of treatment, unfortunately the chances of relapse are very high.

Tobias’ parents have been told that should the latest round of treatment not work then the only options available on the NHS are either radical surgery with removal of major organs, or radiotherapy which could only buy time and is exceptionally damaging to such a young baby. There is, however, a potential novel treatment that could provide hope; a revolutionary medical trial taking place in the US and Spain, which uses a medication which directly targets the gene fusion that causes Toby's tumour. The trial has been getting very promising results, and could be vital for Toby. But the treatment comes at a cost and is not available on the NHS. The drug company has agreed to donate the cost of the medicine itself, but the remainder of the treatment and investigations would need to be funded by the family and are extremely expensive. Costs could extend into hundreds of thousands of pounds; far out of his family’s reach.

Even after all he has been through, Toby is the most happy, smiley baby and refuses to let all of his treatment get in the way of having fun. It really is inspirational to see such a brave child.