Boy starts newfight for life
Most children recover
A Nelson boy with a rare type of cancer who has been told doctors can do nothing more for him is beginning a new battle.
Phoenix Stafford, 9, was diagnosed in 2010 with a cancerous tumour, known as Ewing’s sarcoma, on his spinal cord, which chemotherapy and radiation has failed to treat.
The Victory School pupil started having trouble sleeping in August that year, complaining to his mother Renea Pidduck about having pains in his leg.
An MRI scan the next month, a week before his eighth birthday, revealed a growth.
He went straight to Christchurch Hospital, where an operation revealed it was cancer.
Ms Pidduck said she was just relieved at that stage to finally have a diagnosis, and know there was something wrong – something she assumed chemotherapy and perhaps radiation would fix.
‘‘We hadn’t slept for five weeks because he couldn’t sleep. I was crying with relief to find out what it was.’’
Phoenix spent the next year going to Christchurch every 21 days for chemotherapy, staying at the Ronald Mcdonald House which had been a huge source of support, and finishing in August last year, Ms Pidduck said.
Three days later, following an end-oftreatment party and a routine MRI scan, Phoenix and his mother were to have a ‘‘congratulatory’’ final video call with Christchurch Hospital.
Ms Pidduck had sent her son to school that morning, his first day back after a year.
But before picking up Phoenix, their doctor rang and asked her not to bring her son to the meeting.
‘‘I knew it was bad. I said, just tell me now.’’
Phoenix had a new tumour, which had been growing on his spine during his treatment.
‘‘We thought because they took it out, and he was so healthy, it would go. The first year was OK, but the second year . . . it really Child Cancer Foundation Nelson branch voluntary chairperson Jeanette Bent said the cancers in children most commonly seen in the region were leukaemia, non-hodgkin’s lymphomas, and different types of brain tumours.
On average, the foundation dealt with 30 families in the region during a year. Generally, 80 per cent of children with cancer recover, she said.
‘‘Locally we’ve had our sadnesses as well, but on the whole, most outcomes are positive and kids go on to be happy and healthy and successful, and that’s what we hold on to.’’
Ms Bent said doctors would do everything they could, using the most contemporary and in-
‘‘The first year was OK, but the second year . . . it really took it out of us.’’ Renea Pidduck
it out of
us,’’ Ms Pidduck took said.
‘‘And there just wasn’t a positive part, or any good news, during this entire process.’’
The family also had to cope with Phoenix’s great-aunt dying of cancer last year. Up until this point, Phoenix’s spirits had been high.
‘‘We told him they had different cancers but he was very upset . . . as soon as his great-aunty passed away – he was gone. I found him hiding under the computer, just crying.’’
Phoenix underwent more chemotherapy, and then 28 consecutive days of radiation treatment until December 11, but the tumour continued to grow.
On January 4, Phoenix had MRI and CT scans, in preparation for stem-cell treatment supposed to begin on January 9.
‘‘But after they got back the test results they said that treatment so far hadn’t helped and they wouldn’t put his body through any more intensive chemotherapy or operations, because it didn’t have a high enough chance of working.’’
Ms Pidduck and her son, who were expecting to stay another two months, drove home, ‘‘know- ternationally recognised best practice available, but sometimes the body reached ‘‘saturation’’ point and could no longer take any more treatment.
She was not aware of other families in the region seeking alternative treatment for cancer.
‘‘This is the first instance locally in a long time that someone has faced this situation, and it’s very understandable [they are seeking alternative treatment] – why wouldn’t you take that chance?’’
In 2009, the latest national figures available from the Ministry of Health, 117 children up to the age of 14 were diagnosed with cancer, and 158 patients were aged between 15 and 24. ing they said there’s nothing more they can do for our son.’’ ‘‘It was horrific, really.’’ Ms Pidduck said she wasn’t giving up, and would now try alternative treatment, something she had not considered before because she had been so confident mainstream medicine would work.
Phoenix drinks fresh vegetable and fruit juices twice a day via a feeding tube, as well as small meals, but he ‘‘can’t and won’t eat much’’, Ms Pidduck said.
He has begun treatment with a Mapua GP, including a detox and nutritional supplements, and is about to have blood tests, at a cost of $6000, to identify further treatments required.
More funds will be needed for further treatment.
The Nelson community and others around New Zealand, via a Facebook appeal page, had raised $6000 since last Thursday, with the family raising $2500 alone in two hours in Trafalgar St on Saturday morning, she said.
‘‘We’ve been blown away by the generosity of strangers. You see all this negative stuff in the world, and then see first-hand all this positive caring, kindness and generosity from strangers.’’