Baby’s brave battle

One-year-old Lochie Wightman has already undergone nine doses of chemotherapy and 25 blood transfusions as he battles neuroblastoma — a rare form of cancer.

The Broughty Ferry tot is recovering at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh after spending six weeks in isolation for treatment for the disease.

Lochie was first diagnosed with the condition i n September and has another six to eight months of further treatment ahead.

Despite an emotionally draining few months, mum Joanne today praised her resilient son.

“On February 18 my husband David and I headed through to Edinburgh, knowing how tough this time was going to be for Lochie,” she said.

“His first birthday was less than of liver disease. This is a rare sideeffect from one of the chemotherapy drugs, which caused issues with him breathing.”

Joanne said medication for his liver made a big difference, meaning Lochie could stand and sit up by himself.

She added: “Exactly six weeks to the day Lochie was admitted, the nurses came into our room to inform us we were out of isolation and we could leave the room.

“David and I were both so emotional we had reached this milestone in Lochie’s treatment, and it was amazing to let him leave the room and walk up and down the ward to see all his other little friends in the hospital.

“If all keeps going well, we should be at home in the next few weeks, before we head back to Edinburgh to start on Lochie’s last stage of treatment. We have another six to eight months to go until Lochie’s treatment is finished.

“He is growing into such a clever, loving and amazing little boy and makes us smile every day.”

A MUM has hailed her “amazing little boy” as he prepares to enter his final stage of gruelling cancer treatment.

One-year-old Lochie Wightman has spent the past six weeks in isolation at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children as he battles a rare form of cancer.

Joanne and son Lochie in hospital.