“Straight away we were told how severe and rare the cancer was.” - Ollie’s mum, Barbie
For 12-year-old Ollie, life was just getting started, he was in grade 6 and had worked hard to become school captain. Then his right arm and leg stopped working and his world – and that of his family’s - changed forever.
Ollie didn’t have any signs or symptoms of cancer until one day he came home from school looking like he’d had a stroke.
“The right side of his face was droopy, and his right arm and leg wouldn't work,” his mum Barbie recalls.
“We rushed him to the doctor. Within five minutes they’d called an ambulance and we were on our way to emergency.”
Tests and MRI scans followed. And then came the devastating diagnosis. “It was a big tumour, the size of a mandarin in the deep part of his brain.”
With no time to waste, Ollie was taken in for his first brain surgery.
It was the longest 12 hours of Barbie’s life. But the surgery brought hope, with surgeons able to remove 90% of the tumour. The remaining 10% deemed too dangerous to remove.
From there, Ollie endured six weeks of intensive radiotherapy, and two types of chemotherapy as part of a research trial.
He faced each treatment with courage and a smile on his face. And although the treatments were tough for anyone to go through, let alone a kid, they worked.
Breakthrough research kept the tumour at bay and helped Ollie survive for two years. But it couldn’t stop cancer from taking his life.
Not long after Ollie’s 14th birthday, scans showed a second tumour growing in his brain. This tumour was more aggressive than the first. And within weeks Ollie was gone.
Barbie never left his side and in a moment no parent should ever have to face, she said goodbye:
“I just said to him, ‘it’s okay if you want to go, buddy. I’m going to look after your brother. We’ll be just fine.’ That’s when he took his last breath.”
When cancer took Ollie, it took a brother, and it took a son.. This Daffodil Day, please give to support cancer research and help find the breakthroughs needed to save lives.
We know that research works, we know it is already helping to save lives every day. While we have come such a long way, we still have so much more to do to ensure children, like Ollie, can live beyond a cancer diagnosis.
