Family demands answers over son’s undiagnosed brain cancer

A Perth family wants answers after their son’s cancerous brain tumours went undiagnosed for more than two years despite worrying symptoms.

Perth Grammar School pupil Kieran Thow, 15, was initially told he was suffering from anorexia and anxiety and was referred to CAMHS in Perth for six months and later a unit in Dundee.

However, things took a turn for the worse when the boy deteriorated suddenly and began seeing double.

Despite pleas from the family for Kieran to be admitted to hospital, it was not until a family doctor requested specific blood tests that the issue was discovered.

An MRI scan carried out at Ninewells Hospital in March found two tumours growing on his brain, which experts now say caused Kieran’s pituitary gland to become damaged and cause his eating and dehydration problems.

He is now being treated by the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh and has been put on hormone tablets to help regulate the gland.

Dad Graeme said: “I have gone through the anger and the blaming stage. The main priority is to get Kieran right again. But this will need to be investigated.

“A parent knows their own child. You know something is wrong when he doesn’t want to go out to the park or he is falling asleep because he has no energy. It has been a lot to deal with.

“He has had neurosurgery where they operated on his skull to drain fluid and take samples. That’s when we were told they were cancerous.”

Kieran will now go through chemotherapy but Mr Thow said the prognosis was good.