Mother of youngest liver cancer patient: ‘I can finally say we are in the clear’
The mother of a six-year-old boy who became the youngest patient in Britain to be diagnosed with liver cancer says her son is finally “cancer free”. When Evan Wilson was born and handed to his mother Lorraine on November 2011, a midwife spotted swelling in his stomach.
The youngster was quickly taken away to be examined by specialists who soon after, broke the news to his family that he had a rare form of liver cancer.
At just two hours old, Evan became the youngest patient in Britain ever to be diagnosed at birth.
But now after a difficult start to life, Evan, from East Dunbartonshire, is finally cancerfree – after five difficult years in remission.
Lorraine, 45, a psychiatric nurse, said: “People kept saying the cancer was clear when he was still in remission and I told them to not say that.
“Although it looks clear it could have still come back so that’s why I told them they had to wait for five years before announcing that.
“So when we found out he was cleared from remission it was amazing. I could finally say my son has been cleared of cancer.”
Now Even is getting ready to become a primary three pupil at St Machan’s Primary School in Lennoxtown. Dad Scott, also a psychiatric nurse, said: “He likes St Machan’s Primary School, he enjoys it. I’m proud of what he has achieved.
“We’ve had ups and downs as a family and a lot of couples divorce when things become difficult but we’ve stayed really strong.
“After summer he will go into primary three – he is a typical boy, he goes to school and just gets on with it.
“He’s a great boy, every time I ask him about what he went through, he says I was in a fight with a fox.
“Kids get on with it. They don’t cry and say poor me.”
Evan was born at Glasgow’s Princess Royal hospital weighing 6Ibs 9oz and was quickly diagnosed with hepatoblastoma – a rare cancerous tumor that starts in the liver.
He was moved to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow the day he was born.