Parents mark World Cancer Day by thanking Southampton Children's Hospital team for helping to save their nine-year-old son
Today, on World Cancer Day, the parents of a nine-year-old boy have thanked the team of doctors and nurses at University Hospital Southampton who helped save their son’s life after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Jake Carson-Blake underwent surgery followed by five months of chemotherapy at Southampton Children’s Hospital last year, after receiving the shock news he had Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Mum, Alison, told how it was on May 6th 2021 when overnight their "world fell apart”.
She said “We felt like we were living in a nightmare and waiting for someone to wake us up. It was all a bit of a blur at the time, where one day just moved to the next. Initially we didn’t know what to tell Jake, so we told him that he had a big bully inside of him and that the doctors were going to remove it.
“We had no idea if Jake knew how serious it was, but we were constantly trying to protect him from knowing."
Alison added: "He was a trooper throughout the whole process, hardly ever crying and just getting on with everything. His strength has amazed us. The only time it really got to him was when his Dad told him that he was going to lose his hair. He cried and cried and, as a parent, it’s the hardest thing to see”
Jake spent much of his time on the Piam Brown ward at Southampton Children’s Hospital, which covers seven regions and treats approximately 120 new patients every year.
Alison added: "The staff on Piam Brown were fantastic and really understanding of our grief. They weren’t just there for Jake, but they were helping us too. From the cups of tea when we were feeling low, to the counselling they were unknowingly giving us. They basically worked their socks off and always did it with a smile."
During the half term of October 2021, Jake and his family were on holiday in the New Forest when they got the call that they had all been waiting for.
Alison said: “Dr Sam [Dr Hosam Mohamed] called us out of the blue to say that Jake was cancer free. It was a complete shock and something, after the year we’d had so far, that we never thought we would hear.
"No one will ever understand what the parents of children with cancer see and go through. We hope that if anything can come from this, it’s that we can at least spread awareness of the symptoms. If one child can get an earlier diagnosis and one more child can be saved, then we feel like we’ve given something back”
Jake celebrated his 9th birthday in December, free of cancer and free of his lines and tubes. He’s now back at school and looking forward to living life to the fullest.
Dad, Nathan, said “We want to say thank you to all of the doctors and nurses that have helped save our son, we can’t thank you enough for your help and how kind you all were. You made sure our son can live a normal life again and for that we will be forever thankful”
