Parents devastated as son is diagnosed with tumour
LITTLE TED BATTLING RARE CANCER
PARENTS have told of their anguish after their youngest son was found to have an incredibly rare and unknown form of cancer.
Ted Neal, who is just 11 months old and lives in Calverton, was diagnosed with a tumour in his sinus after initially being taken to A&E on August 14 by his parents, who thought he had sand in his eye after visiting a beach in North Wales.
Jessica Neal, 35, a product developer, and Lee Neal, 37, who works for Nottingham City Council, say their child’s diagnosis – which doctors have described as a rare and unspecified sarcoma in his ethmoid sinus – has made life incredibly difficult.
Jessica said: “It really did come as a massive shock. We knew there was a swelling but we honestly thought we were seeing things to start off with. I was expecting them to tell us nothing was wrong – but they didn’t.
“It’s a good sign that he is smiling, but it has been rough on him. He has a round of chemotherapy every two weeks and it takes him a while to recover.
“He has been very, very sick. It’s been almost constant and he has lost a lot of weight. He has had infection after infection and had sepsis at one point.
“As parents it’s the worst thing you could find out, and the unknown type of sarcoma is incredibly rare and so is where it is in Ted’s body, so finding out it’s not going to be easy to treat is the worst thing.
“There’s no known treatment plan and there’s no known process. The plan is changing all the time about whether surgery is possible because they don’t know whether the tumour will react to radiotherapy.”
Ted is currently being treated at the Queen’s Medical Centre.
Jessica added: “The nurses and the whole team have been absolutely incredible from day one. “They’re just brilliant. “We don’t know whether we’re going to need to fund any treatment or surgery elsewhere or whether we will be able to use the money that’s been raised to treat him to something special next year.”
Ted’s dad, Lee, said it was hard to try to provide a life close to normal for his family, with older brothers Ben, 14, and Charlie, 15, also devastated by the news.
He said: “It was awful. Me and Jess were both devastated. He’s undergone a lot of tests but we still don’t know a lot and he doesn’t have an official specific diagnosis yet, which is the hard part – it being unknown.
“His brothers do understand and we are trying to keep them into a routine and keep life as normal as possible, but it’s really difficult because Ted needs almost 24/7 care unless he’s having a very good day.
“It’s difficult. It’s really hard for them as well thinking about their little brother. We’re all constantly thinking about Ted.
“He’s in the hospital every few days if anything happens like him having a fever – we have to go backwards and forwards.
“People have been extremely supportive though. Our employers have been as well, and the people treating him have all been brilliant.”
Outpatient nurses from Ilkeston, Ripley and Heanor will be doing a sponsored walk next April and money raised will be given to the Neal family to pay for a family outing when possible or for any treatment through a Gofundme page.