Maximus was an energetic, hilarious, crazy little boy before he was diagnosed with leukaemia just after his 3rd birthday. He’d had a temperature on and off for a few weeks and a bit of a limp, but he didn’t complain. One afternoon we noticed a small rash on his ankle and we were referred directly to Ormskirk hospital a&e. After a number of days and what I can only describe as many tortuous attempts at blood draws we found out he might have leukaemia. We were transferred to Alder Hey children’s hospital for extensive blood and bone marrow tests and were given the devastating news that it was blood cancer (leukaemia).

To say it was a shock was an understatement. I don’t think we will ever truly get over the feelings of that day nor forget it and those feelings are still so fresh even now. The treatment he has had to endure is heartbreaking. On top of this he has had to deal with some major side effects. He developed 2 dangerous blood clots and was on blood thinning injections twice a day for 5 months. It took 3 of us to pin him down each time as he screamed in fear and pain as the injections burned under his skin. It was absolutely heartbreaking to know I had to inflict this pain to save him.

Max lost the ability to walk 2 weeks into treatment for the next 6 months and still struggles with walking distances and has pain in his feet and legs, a side affect we don’t know how long he’ll have.

On top of everything else he caught a life threatening infection which was eating away at his skin at a time when he had no immune system to fight it off. He spent a long time in hospital on antibiotics and special treatments to help his body fight. It was terrifying, the thought that it may not have been the leukemia to take him but a horrific infection. I was off work for 6 months at the beginning to be with him when every second of the day was incredibly difficult. Max’s dad still had to run a business whilst emotionally and physically supporting us and life had to go on as normal for Max’s brother who also missed out on a lot .

Max has a daily chemo, a weekly chemo, a monthly chemo, 5 days of steroids every month and spinal chemo every 3 months in theatre. This is his life and this is all he’s known.

The fear as a parent is unbelievable and it continues everyday. Max is kept isolated as much as possible, he’s missed nursery, preschool and a large portion of reception class. He’s not managed to develop friendships and has missed out on so much especially now COVID is around. But the fear of whether this will ever be over or whether it will return is unbearable.

Max is still soldering on and he finds joy in everything, and does it with a smile and some crazy energy! He should finish treatment in October next year and we believe he will ring that bell which signifies the conclusion of his treatment programme.

Max is a huge Disney fan and absolutely loves animals and dinosaurs, so we’d love to take him to Disneyland Paris and swimming with dolphins ( he’s not been in more than 3 inches of water since he was 2 because of the permanent line in his chest). We’d love to have some family time together and really treat both the boys after such a difficult time.

We know a lot of charities help with this but we also know that due to COVID they are all struggling incredibly with finding the money for all these kids. So Max’s dad and I have decided to try and raise the money ourselves.

We will be doing ‘Miles for Max’. We have converted all the treatment he has had, and will have, into the miles (10,303 to be exact) which equates to a marathon a day, until his treatment ends. We will run, walk, or cycle this amount of miles.

Please help us raise as much as we can. Even the smallest amount would make such a difference.

From the bottom of our hearts I thank you for taking the time to read his story.

P.S We would love to take him away on holiday after he rings the bell. He’s never been abroad and every UK holiday we’ve tried has either been cancelled, cut short or disrupted due to treatment, infections or complications.

Sharon and Mike (Max’s mum and dad)