On the 1st May 2009 Arthur was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancerous soft tissue tumour in his thigh. We would like to be able to keep you informed of his progress and share some of our thoughts and feelings with our friends and family who have given us overwelming support, for which we thank you.
Arthur is now 4 years old. He has a cheeky smile and loves to tickle mummy. Despite being very poorly Arthur never cried and was always brave. He loves The Wiggles, Fireman Sam and animals. Arthur completed his treatment in December 2009 after intensive chemotherapy, surgery and 10 months hospitalisaton.
Arthur's treatment left him unable to eat and fed permenantly through a feeding tube inserted into his tummy. In February 2011 we embarked on a journey to a specialist feeding clinic in Graz, Austria, where we hoped Arthur would learn to eat again and start the next chapter in his life. Although the treatment was not 100% on our return he began to make slow and steady progress and started to eat small tastes of food. One of the biggest success of the treatment is the impact it has had on his development. His mobility, speech and language started to imrove, and while we were there he said Mummy for the first time. The treatments he received there were not availlable to us through the NHS.
The doctor's in Austria observed behaviour from Arthur that concerned them, this was the main reason the treatment wasn't effective. There could be many different reasons for this, amongst these they were concerned that he could be autistic, however it was more likely that he had a pervasive disorder associated with the trauma of his 10 months hospitalisation and constant invasive procedures. Arthur has now been diagnosed with Global Development Delay.
Six months after leaving Graz Arthur was eating enough to support himself and despite losing nearly 5 kilos in weight we were confident to remove his feeding tube. Arthur has now been treatment free from his cancer for 2 years. His speech, language and general understanding is improving.
The support we have received has helped us help Arthur get this far, our next steps will be to register Arthur's Next Steps as a charity and provide vital play opportunities to post hospitalised pre school children in their home in order to accelerate their development and help prevent developmental delay.
