Tough battler mum’s little miracle man

Before Elijah Amoah (pictured) was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 at the age of 3, there was little to tell his mother and father just how sick he was.

When the Wellington boy grew clingy and began falling asleep on the couch in afternoons, his parents put it down to starting at kindergarten.

It was only after he fell over in a playground that they noticed swelling in Elijah’s jaw and took him to see the doctor. Even then, it was assumed the boy had a case of glandular fever — leukaemia was suggested, but only as a slim possibility that would be tested for.

“It was just horrendous, it was awful,” his mum Olivia Amoah said of later being told her son had acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

What began with immediate treatment in Christchurch rolled into years of hospital stays and heartwrenching ups and downs.

The family was heartened when a bone marrow transplant was able to be taken from his younger brother Taziyah — something so unlikely Mrs Amoah compared it to winning the lottery. But the family was knocked again when Elijah relapsed a second time.

Somehow, chirpy Elijah has managed to battle back and much to his parents’ amazement and joy, the 11-year-old is now in remission and catching up on three years of missed school.

“Most kids who relapse twice don’t actually end up surviving, so he’s pretty much a miracle,” Mrs Amoah said. “Leukaemia is so common but it’s really scary — and when people say ‘oh you’re lucky because that’s the one with the highest cure rate’, it makes me so angry as it’s also the cancer with the longest treatment, the harshest treatment, and it’s a huge ordeal for any family to go through.”

News that a fresh research effort would look at ways to ease the plight of young leukemia sufferers like Elijah was exciting, she said.

“Anything that can improve things at the moment and make it easier on these kids is so crucial.”