Daniel was once given two weeks to live, but he’s still fighting for life and his family are clinging on to hope
THE family of a youngster who was given two weeks to live have credited him as a “happy little boy” despite him receiving cancer treatment for the last five years.
Daniel Rigley, eight, was first diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia in 2016 when he was just three, and at one point was given two weeks to live.
Since then he has spent his childhood moving in and out of hospital for treatment, while his family desperately wait for answers.
Daniel’s cousin, Katie Oakes, 21, a healthcare assistant at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, said Daniel’s life has been nothing but turbulent.
Katie, of Long Eaton, said: “He spent most of his childhood life going in and out of hospital, he never went to nursery or anything like that because he was just so unwell.
“He did really well with his chemotherapy initially and was given the all-clear in December 2018, and he managed to go and visit some family in the Philippines, but when he was there he started to become quite unwell with stomach and back pain.
“He went to hospital when he came back, and after he was given the all-clear we were told he had relapsed again.”
After relapsing, Daniel was admitted to the intensive care unit at the hospital and placed into a coma where his body attempted to battle meningitis. It was there that doctors told the family that Daniel would probably never recover because of the pressure the infection had placed on his brain.
Katie said: “We were told the meningitis had affected his brain so much because he had a lot of fluid build-up, and he was actually never going to recover from this, and never going to come round.
“He was given two weeks to live, so obviously we were all in absolute bits. Daniel’s mum and dad were in pieces, it was absolutely horrible.
“We were so upset because he had done so well and it seemed like he was responding well to all the treatments.
“We started planning his funeral and we were basically expecting the worst. Weeks went by and he wasn’t really getting any better, but he wasn’t getting any worse either.
“We had every hope that he would recover because you never actually know what is going to happen.”
Daniel continued to improve following a risky operation to fit a shunt in his brain that would help drain the excess fluid out of his system.
In the following weeks, Daniel showed signs of improvement by moving his fingers and toes and attempting to talk.
After six months of physiotherapy and speech therapy, doctors saw enough improvement in Daniel’s condition to put him back on to chemotherapy treatment for the cancer.
“Obviously, Daniel still had the cancer but to start the treatment again they had to see him physically improve which he had done,” Katie said.
“They decided to start him on chemotherapy again, and when he got well enough he was sent for a stem cell transplant.
“Daniel absolutely defeated all the odds. Within six months he was walking with crutches and he seemed like a normal little boy, other than a slight memory loss.
“He is the happiest little boy. He got well enough to have the stem cell transplant so he went to the Leeds children’s hospital where he was for five months and had the transplant.
“With Covid it was difficult because only one parent was allowed to visit, so obviously Daniel’s mum was there but Daniel’s dad Adrian wasn’t allowed to see him for five months or see his wife for five months.
“He’s still poorly now but he’s stable. We’re not really too sure on the outcome Daniel’s going to have.”
Katie said that Daniel’s illness has had a devastating impact on their family, but they have supported each other throughout the past five years.
She added: “Obviously as a family it affected us all massively. I’ve had to take time off work to be there for the family, because we were all in shreds when he became end-of-life.
“It had to bring us all together as a family, because obviously we had no other choice because we were all so devastated. We all came together and supported each other.”
Now, Daniel’s father Adrian, 58, and cousin Leonie, 29, are raising cash for the Young Lives vs Cancer charity that helped them through their struggles. Leonie and Adrian, a Royal Mail postman, are walking from the Peak District to the Scottish border in an effort to raise the money.
Katie hopes that they’ll be able to raise a substantial amount for the charity, and looks forward to Daniel’s condition getting progressively better with time. “Hopefully Daniel will recover,” she said. “So far he’s doing absolutely fantastic, we just hope that everything goes well for him and that he can go back to being a normal little boy. He is such a fighter and is so upbeat, you would never know he’s been through what he’s been through, when really he’s the one that’s kept us all going because he’s the one that’s been so happy all the time.” You can donate to the family’s fundraiser at the website www.justgiving.com.
He’s still poorly now but he’s stable. We’re not really too sure on the outcome Daniel’s going to have. Katie Oakes