Our Story

In November 2024 Joel was diagnosed with a rare, fast growing osteosarcoma in his left knee. When I took him to A&E I just thought that it would be a torn ligament from all the skating he did. Never did I expect the words that came out of the doctors mouth when he saw the X-ray. Things moved very quickly and to the NHS I am grateful, Joel was transferred to Birmingham orthopaedic hospital for a biopsy confirmation. Life just happened and we all as a family went with the flow, in a sense life doesn’t wait, you just have to stay on the rollercoaster and hold on. Within a month we were meeting the specialist oncology Doctor at Leicester Royal Infirmary and planning for Joel to have a Portacath in and Chemotherapy started just 2 weeks before Christmas 2024. Doctor Speed was amazing, she just got Joel and understood him and just explained everything to him brilliantly, even when he would switch off and shut down. Joel’s chemo ran on a 4 week cycle with the 4th week being at home if he was well enough and the other 3 weeks meant he was in hospital Monday-Friday and home for the weekends, again if he was well enough and managed to get his chemotherapy levels down. In March 2025 after 3 cycles Joel had his left knee removed at Birmingham Orthopaedics with a 2 week stay and then straight back to Leicester for Chemo. The operation was amazing with a zip placed on the wound to prevent staples, but the stay at Birmingham was tough, trying to keep him still and calm it was rough for him. I am so proud of him to get through what he went through, as words cannot express what we went through as a family. My heart goes out to support any other parent that has to watch their child go through any type of trauma, you can do this just hang on. Without the amazing and supportive team on Ward 27 including Lois and Lucy from Teenage Cancer Trust I’m not sure how we would have managed. They were brilliant, always there to spend time chatting to us and explaining what was happening, especially with Joel and I appreciate more than anything that they understood him. Yes the nurses definitely hid when Joel’s levels were coming down and he wanted to go home. Honestly he’s determined and we made some memories I will never forget, random conversations at 2am when the pump alarms going off. When he was undergoing surgery I would sit in a room full of ways to raise money, then I read Sean Conways, Land End to John O’Groats adventure and said I want to do that to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. Summer last year Joel was still undergoing treatment and so I got my daughter onboard as she likes to do crazy things. So here it is our fundraising page - cycling Lands End to John O’Groats 20th July 2026 aim to complete by 2nd August 2026 to raise money to support more teenagers get the same support Joel had. Thank you ❤️

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