Fighting-fit Freddy!
Incredible recovery of boy, 5, who was riddled with rare cancer ‘from his nose to his knees’
WHEN Freddy Wetherley was diagnosed with a rare illness, doctors told his devastated parents he was riddled with cancer from his ‘nose to his knees’.
his mother Alice Phillips, 25, and father Ricky Wetherley, 27, didn’t think the five-year-old would ever pull through.
But after intensive treatment – which has included surgery, chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant – he is finally in remission and about to start school for the first time.
The body scans on this page show just how serious his condition was. Miss Phillips, who lives in Grays, Essex, said: ‘We could see the cancer all over his body, it just seemed impossible that he would survive.
‘But he has done wonderfully well and made an amazing recovery and we are very proud of him.’
Freddy was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, which affects only 100 children in the UK annually, in August last year.
Miss Phillips, a former nursery nurse, said: ‘he had been such a healthy toddler and was hardly ever ill. Then he started to complain that his legs were hurting, but we didn’t think much of it at first. We just thought that he had a bug. We never imagined that it could be anything as serious as cancer.
‘Then he started saying he didn’t want to go on fairground rides because his legs were hurting. So we took him to the doctors and then to hospital.’
At the local A&E, doctors did a scan and discovered Freddy had a massive tumour in his stomach.
he was referred to Great Ormond Street hospital in London where more tests and biopsies on the tumour were carried out and on August 16 he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.
Miss Phillips said: ‘When they told us what Freddy had it was devastating. We couldn’t believe it.’ he immediately started on 70 days of chemotherapy and then a stem cell transplant over Christmas. In February he had surgery to remove the tumour.
Miss Phillips said: ‘he was sick and exhausted through the treatment, but he has handled everything really well. he spent a lot of time on Facetime to his sister Freya, who is two, and that really helped him. he really looked forward to talking to her every day.’
In May Freddy was finally given the all-clear. Miss Phillips said: ‘he’s back kicking a football around and has lots more energy again. he’s looking forward to starting school next week, and we can’t believe what an achievement that is. When we first saw that body scan, we didn’t think there was much hope.
‘he really is our little miracle.’
‘We just thought he had a bug’