Our world turned upside down two weeks ago when we discovered that our beautiful son Olly has cancer. He is such an amazing boy and has overcome so many hurdles in his life and has been an absolute superhero throughout.

His Lung condition, Surfactant C Deficiency has been a constant presence in his life. He has often undergone medical procedures ,but he has been well for a number of years now. He even had his feeding tube reversed last March and has been able to maintain his weight and has been able to be just normal as he puts it.

After his surgery he recovered well and everything appeared to be fine. He then developed a pain in his groin and a small lump in his hairline. This then progressed rapidly to a wheeze and back pain along with a worsening limp.

After numerous GP and hospital appointments, by which time he was unable to stand for very long and was waking up in pain, not to mention the constant pain killers he was requiring it was finely decided he should undergo an MRI.

Within a week we were at the Royal Stanmore Hospital in London where he had various scans and a hip biopsy. We were then called into a side room and given the talk no parent ever wants to have. After a night at the Stanmore we then went straight to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. He has undergone a lung biopsy had his feeding tube reinstated and a had a Hickman line put in. He has been so brave and accepting of what he needs to do to and is in so much pain its just heart breaking to watch. He has already received three days of chemo plus other medications.

We are awaiting results of various tests to determine exactly what type of cancer we are dealing with.

I know Olly's big brother Samuel will be watching over him and keeping him safe.

Right now our main priority is to keep Olly as pain free and comfortable as possible. We hope to be able to have enough of life to enjoy some special time together as a family and make some wishes come true for Oliver. We have set this page up to enable people to contribute and support Olly and our family in the coming weeks and hopefully months.

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UPDATE

It is so incredibly hard to find the right words, the words we never ever wanted to have to write or say out loud. We always knew how the story was going to end, but it doesn't make it any bloody easier.

We are overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone in supporting us during our last few months with Olly. Your kindness has meant that we have been able to be the parents that were able to say yes to everything. Whatever his wishes were we could grant them. A new phone, tablet, gaming PC, various Lego's, countless games and extras on the Xbox and movies on Amazon Prime. We said yes to absolutely all of it and more. We even had the Delorean time machine in our back garden for an afternoon.

We were able to stay near each other when Olly was in hospital because of Covid one of us always had to stay in a B&B, but at least we were close and didn't have the long drive home in tears every day. When you have a child in hospital for any length of time the financial strain of it quickly mounts up and by all of your generosity this is one problem we did not have to add to our list, so thank you.

Now for the hard part,

We always knew that cancer would win this battle but Oliver gave it a good run for its money and our brave boy fought to his very last breath. He was so blinking strong and brave and we are beyond proud. He was so accepting of what needed to be done in order to get well again. He just wanted to be normal, nothing out of the ordinary, just normal.

He left this world on the 10/09/2021 at 4am with us, his parents at his side. I would like to be able to tell you all that is was peaceful and he slipped away in his sleep. It wasn't, it was brutal, he would not give in and any child, our child should not have to suffer in this way. We shouldn't have had to watch Cancer win.

We have been supported by Each children's Hospice and our family and friends. We are very lucky to have such wonderful people around us.

So finally, I want to remember Oliver as the best snuggler, best ear waggler, awesome DJ (better than daddy)mini petrol head, our kind boy with the gentle brown eyes. He loved mischief and having a laugh, camping, swimming in the sea, being with his buddies. Eleven years was never going to be long enough but I hope he enjoyed them as much as we have.

We just miss him

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