Welcome to our members of the month
January 2013
Samuel (Sam) was a happy go lucky 2 and a half year old with long blond curly hair in July 2010 when he complained of a sore leg and had a temperature. We though nothing of it, took him to the Dr’s who said it was prob a virus but keep an eye on the sore leg. Exactly a week later he had the same thing, this time he wouldn’t put any weight on his leg so the Dr sent us to the hospital to check for bone infection. His x-ray was fine but the blood test showed all of his counts were low. He had a blood transfusion immediately but luckily the blood ‘film’ was negative to leukaemia… And again the next day, and the next. We eventually went to the Royal Marsden 4 days later for a bone marrow biopsy which confirmed leukaemia ALL. That’s where the journey began! It’s been a long journey but he’s doing well. Recently Sam’s nurse at our local hospital introduced us to ‘beads of courage’ and Sam immediately received a long string of beads, that was just for that 1 admission! He has since received many more 100 beads to make up for the ones he missed out in before discovering them. Sam cherishes his Beads and brought them into school with him to show his classmates some of what he’s been through. Beads of Courage are a symbol of how long the journey is for these poor heroes and they are a marker that they can keep forever. We look forward to hanging ours on our Christmas tree every year now as Sam finishes his treatment on 7th September 2013 Thank you beads of Courage, thank you ‘Be Child Cancer Aware’
