A brave boy’s big hug for dying dad
Cancer sufferer, 33, in last-ditch plea for help
THIS heartbreaking photo shows a cancer-stricken young father cradling his son on his hospital bed.
Dad-of-three Jon Strawson, 33, has been told by doctors there is nothing left they can do for him, and that he has just weeks to live.
But he is refusing to ‘roll over and die’ and has issued a lastditch plea for anyone to get in touch with help or advice.
Mr Strawson said he can’t give up for the sake of his family – Freya, seven, George, six, and Henry, four, and wife Rachel, 30.
The photo shows him embracing George after his latest round of chemotherapy at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
Mr Strawson, who lives near Crediton, Devon, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia on his 33rd birthday last July. Following months of unsuccessful treatments, including a stem cell transplant, his last option is a course of intensive chemotherapy.
Mr Strawson said he had to try everything, adding: ‘If you relapse from a stem cell transplant in the first six months, your chances of survival are pretty poor. Doctors have never known anyone to be cured from the relapse I have.
‘I was told I could either go home and receive palliative care and I could be dead within weeks, or try the option of intensive chemotherapy to give me a second chance of remission. The chemotherapy is so intense, there’s a 10 per cent risk that my bone marrow will never recover.
‘But being given weeks to live is not long enough. I owe it to my three children to prolong things for longer. I’ve had to have some horrible conversations. My children know I’m ill again but that’s the extent they have been told.’
Mr Strawson is appealing for people to come forward with information about new drug treatments. They can email him at ray.jon@hotmail.com