A mum has spoken about the devastating cancer diagnosis given to her son on his sixth birthday - after she was initially told two lumps she had found on him were nothing to worry about.
Alexandra Jones, 29, first saw the lumps on little Leighton's head in April. She took him to a walk-in health centre to be looked at. Despite visiting twice, she was told that the lumps were nothing to be concerned about.
But then a "tear" opened up on Leighton's eye, so she returned. It was then that the family, from Huyton in Liverpool, were referred to Wigan Eye Hospital and Alexandra was told that Leighton needed an urgent MRI scan, reports the LiverpoolECHO.
Soon after, doctors found that Leighton had Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. Around 3,300 cases are diagnosed each year, with few than 60 of those in children.
Alexandra told the ECHO: "After the scan the doctor came out and told us it was a tumour. He had to have all these different scans because they didn't know what cancer it was at first.
"It all happened quite fast. My whole world was broken in half. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to say. You just never expect it, ever.
"I just kept thinking why my little boy, he’s always been happy and healthy since he was a baby. He was the only one of my children who never really got sick before.
"He had the first biopsy done and that's when I found out the news that they’d found something and that it was definitely cancerous, but they didn’t know what it was. That was on his sixth birthday, it wasn’t the nicest of news to hear on his birthday.
"Then he had another biopsy, I think it was the next week, and we found out pretty soon afterwards what it was. I explained it to my two older girls, who are about only 10 and nine, because I thought they could help me explain it to him. I had to tell Leighton exactly what it was."
Of the roughly 60 cases of Rhabdomyosarcoma diagnosed in children every year, most happen in children below the age of 10. Though rare overall, it is the most commonly occurring sarcoma - cancer which begins in the bones and connective tissues - in children. The prognosis of each case of Rhabdomyosarcoma depends on a variety of factors, however recent developments in the treatment of the cancer have significantly improved outcomes.
Alexandra added: "Because of the type of cancer it is, it comes with a higher chance of him getting a secondary cancer later in life. He's had nine cycles of chemotherapy, with the last one being this weekend, whch is amazing.
"He's then got to go through another eight weeks of radiotherapy - six weeks on his head and two weeks on his lungs. That comes with another added risk because it can also cause a secondary cancer.
"Don't get me wrong, the outcome at the moment is looking positive. But there is that worry, what if?
"Because we're nearing the end of the treatment it's starting to become a nightmare I have quite regularly of thinking what if it does come back. He actually asked me the other day, he came up to me and said 'mummy what if I get it again' and I didn't know what to say to him."
You can find out more about Leighton's condition and other sarcomas at sarcoma.org.uk
