Urgent fundraiser launched as family left with just 60 days to save life of 5-year-old Teddy
The family of a five-year-old from Sawtry have launched an urgent fundraiser after being left with only 60 days to save his life.
A couple of months before his 5th birthday least year Teddy’s family were given the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of medulloblastoma, pediatric brain cancer.
They were told that Teddy would need emergency brain surgery to remove a mass, in the back of his brain.
Teddy has been diagnosed with a metatastic brain cancer with a Medulloblastoma grade 4; one of the most aggressive forms of pediatric brain cancer. Such has been the aggressive nature of the cancer, in just a few months, the disease has spread spread throughout his spine, brain and CSF fluid.
Then came the hope for Teddy’s mum Cindy and her partner Liam, as Teddy was accepted onto a trial in the United States of America to use new drugs to treat high-risk Medulloblastoma. The trial is a two-year programme at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania and has shown promising results in helping children with high-risk cancers like Teddy’s stay in remission.
Teddy has been accepted onto the trial but the barrier is funding. The total cost — including medical treatment, ongoing tests and scans, travel, insurances and accommodation — is estimated to be at least £200,000.
The worst part is that Teddy’s family were only given 60 days from the beginning of July to get Teddy onto the trial. After this time, the trial will no longer be available to him and it is feared that Teddy will not survive.
Teddy’s mum Cindy said: “Teddy is the absolute light of my life, he brings joy and a little sass daily to everyone he meets, you can usually find him singing and dancing even in the middle of a restaurant when his favourite Taylor Swift song comes on. He brings a genuine smile to everyone he meets.
"We could not believe it when Teddy was diagnosed. Our beautiful cheeky boy had only just started school and was loving every moment with his new friends. Then he was faced with the fight of his life at only four years old. This is a battle no child should have to go through.”
Since being diagnosed last year, Teddy has had a shunt placed in his brain in November before beginning two rounds of induction chemotherapy to halt the cancer,along with six weeks of proton therapy that started in London in January.
In early December, Teddy was placed on hospice care with palliative care input, despite his parents going ahead with treatment.
His mother Cindy has given up her job and moved to London with Teddy to act as his full-time carer, while her partner Liam has continued to work to support the family financially.
Cindy added: “We were told that without treatment he had six to 12 weeks to live. No parent should ever have to hear those words.
“I admit I completely fell apart. We met with the wonderful hospice staff, and a loose plan was put in place.
“At the start of December, we were told we could go ahead after his induction chemotherapy and try proton therapy. If this was successful, it would give him time as his scans from his first round of chemotherapy had shown the fact that his leptomeningeal spread had actually slowed and had some shrinkage despite a new smaller brain tumour.
“At the end of March, we received the news that he has shown overall shrinkage on all of his tumours except one in his brain,and that his metastasis all throughout had pretty much halved, letting us know that treatment was working and he could start chemotherapy.
Everyone had secretly had hoped that the fact Teddy was back dancing, running and having some days at school, that treatment must be working.
“Teddy started his high risk protocol chemotherapy at the end of March and that ran for four rounds over five months.”
In order to support Teddy and his family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-5year-old-teddys-life-from-brain-cancer-niall-d.