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We all work so hard for our children to be happy, fulfilled and enjoy care-free lives so it really is every parent’s worst nightmare to be sat down and told that their child is critically ill. On the 11th January 2016 we received the devastating diagnosis that our gorgeous little boy, Carter, had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. 100% leukaemia cells with zero healthy cells seen. The road has been a gruelling one of 8 months intensive treatment followed by 3 years of maintenance treatment. Carter has been so incredibly brave throughout. At only 4 years old, he understood how vital his wigglies (central lines) were, he accepted his magic sleeps on a weekly and sometimes twice a week basis, he quietly took all of his chemotherapy and steroid treatment in hospital & at home and one of the most touching things is that when he lost his hair he just said ‘at least we don’t need to wash it now mummy.’ He knew that his factory was broken and was making poorly blood and that we needed it fixed to make ‘Spiderman blood’ as we call it. He knew he had a lot of weeds and not many flowers so when our consultant told us he could see a few flowers, Carter said ‘that’s good Mummy, I think they like the medicine we are giving them.’
In addition to this bravery, despite switching to a life of cannulas, chemo, blood tests, hospital, magic sleeps & scans, Carter has never complained about missing the fun of school, swimming, horse-riding, football or parties. He has never mentioned his sore back after the lumbar punctures and bone marrow tests and he didn’t even cry about not being able to walk for so long. Such strength from a 4 year old who has now grown up into a remarkable young lad at 8 years old. Carter rang the bell in March 2019 & we thought that would be the end of the journey but on the contrary it fell quickly upon BCH to try & find out what was causing Carter’s new problems. We had ambulances, many many 60 minute dashes & a very poorly boy. I simply cannot fault BCH again this year as Carter has received the most phenomenal care. We have had many bone marrow tests, lumbar punctures, countless scans, x-rays, nerve testing & blood tests & spent about 4 or 5 weeks total as inpatients. The cause is still unknown…
One of our missions continues to be our fundraising to help other people’s Carters. We set up Carter the Brave in April 2016 to raise funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Research & other Childhood Cancer related causes. So far we have purchased the handsfree Vocera system across the BCH Oncology ward & clinic, 3 IV Vein Finders, 2 Mobile Ear & Throat Devices, DVD players & DVDs for clinic, 2 iPads, 625 AMAZON vouchers for the newly diagnosed & finally we were delighted to donate £8000 to Round Table Children’s Wish, which helps fulfil the dreams of children with cancer who are either critically or terminally ill. In November 2019 we were also pleased to purchase purchase 7 GameStations – for clinic, ward & the transplant unit. These GameStations have been 2 years in the making & are the first ones of their kind in the world. Branded with the CTB logo they will now be sold across the world & for each one sold, the manufacturer SL Kids will donate £50 to CTB/BCH. They allow children to play games or watch movies from bed, lying down & in isolation - they are totally mobile much like a hospital bed table. We are currently finalising details of Carter the Brave’s Fellowship Fund which will create a research project to be carried out by Dr Frank Mussai, leading Paediatric Oncology Consultant of BCH. I am forever grateful to the astounding support we have received over the last 4 years & I’ve received so many messages of thanks from patients’ parents. Today I am so proud of Team Carter & what we have all achieved, thank you all so much.
