Race to save brain tumour boy after NHS Covid delays
£500K PLEA TO TREAT LAD AGED 7
A FAMILY is urgently trying to raise £500,000 so that a boy whose brain tumour surgery was delayed due to Covid can get treatment abroad.
The parents of Alexander Josephs, seven, think his 20% odds of beating his cancer with NHS treatments would have been far better if not for the pandemic’s impact.
An MRI scan revealing his tumour, initially thought benign, got lost in the chaos – then an op to remove it was delayed three months as Covid cases overran hospitals.
Mum Rhonda said: “We don’t blame the hospital, we know they are doing their best to save him. We just feel unlucky this happened to him in such unprecedented times.”
The 43-year-old and husband Jamaine, 44, hope to raise £500,000 for pioneering treatment in Germany, which he will travel there for once a month for up to two years.
Rhonda, from South-east London, said: “The sooner we raise the money… the more likely Alexander is to get through this. He is the kindest and most generous little boy you could ever meet and loves to laugh.”
Alexander was referred for a scan in September after a seizure. But due to Covid pressures, it didn’t happen until midnovember and the results were then lost.
Seizures
They were found when Alexander went to A&E after another seizure in December and showed a slow-growing tumour . It was decided to “watch and wait”. By Christmas, he was having up to three seizures a day and Rhonda begged the hospital to operate.
She said: “They still believed it was benign and said… it was safer not to come in.”
By January 2 he was worse but Rhonda was told they could not operate as “the ICU was on standby for Covid patients”. She said: “I’ve never felt such despair.”
In March, the tumour was removed but a second was found in Alexander’s spine. Five weeks later, he was having seizures and the tumour had started to grow back.
He had a spinal op in June, then a second brain op. Alexander has a rare grade 3 glioma tumour, which can turn from benign to malignant. He has now had six weeks of radiotherapy to his head and spine.
The Josephs, whose other son is nine, have found IOZK Immunotherapy in Cologne and a monthly individualised vaccine for patients in Tübingen, raising £48,000 of the £500,000 needed so far.
Hugh Adams, of charity Brain Tumour Research, said crowdfunding fills “an unmet need” after the pandemic created “desperate situations”. He said: “Alexander’s story reminds us how dreadful it is families have to self-fund costly treatment overseas.”
A Department of Health spokesman expressed sympathy for Alexander’s situation and said: “Cancer has remained a top priority throughout the pandemic.”