real life
As Emmerdale follows Dawn and Billy’s baby Evan’s diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, Bella speaks to Raysa Farah, 32, whose son, S’aad, has the same disease
After changing into my pyjamas and switching on the TV, I got ready for a night with my two-year-old son, S’aad. We’d been in hospital for the past 48 hours, as S’aad hadn’t been well, but it looked like my little boy was finally on the up. I was hopeful we’d be back home with my husband Mohammed and older son Adam, four, soon. As I settled in, a consultant entered the room. S’aad was already asleep, so I beckoned her outside to chat.
Little did I know, my world was about to shatter…
“S’aad has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia,” she said. It was a rare type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. My mind whirred with questions. How did my bright, bubbly boy have cancer? Was I going to lose him? Ever since S’aad was born in 2020, he was happy, smiley, and full of energy. Mohammed and I would call him our wild child, as he’d constantly run around and jump off the sofa.
So, when he became subdued, I assumed he was just a bit under the weather. He was sleeping a lot and had some pain in his legs, which we put down to him overdoing it.
But in May 2022, S’aad’s nursery phoned to say he was limp and floppy. Panicking, I took him straight to A&E, where he was diagnosed with toxic synovitis, a temporary hip pain that’s common in children. I was told to keep an eye on him and treat him with Paracetamol. However, S’aad got worse. I started to wonder if it was more serious than we thought, so I asked my mum, a baby doctor, to come round and look at him. As she tried to examine him, S’aad screamed in pain and pointed at his leg. As he couldn’t speak yet, it was the only way he could communicate what was wrong.
Mum told me to call 111, who advised us to go back to hospital. After tests, a consultant thought S’aad had sepsis, but that he’d be OK with antibiotics. He wanted to discharge S’aad, but Mum was adamant he needed more tests. So, over the next 48 hours, S’aad had various checks and a blood transfusion as his haemoglobin levels were low. The colour returned to S’aad’s cheeks. He sat up for the first time in two days and was a lot perkier. But now, hearing the consultant say that my boy had cancer, I was numb with shock. How was I going to tell Mohammed and Adam? I was shaking as a nurse put a chair behind me and told me to sit down.
That night, Mohammed and I spent hours discussing our son’s diagnosis and what it meant for our family. While Mohammed researched everything, I avoided asking questions. I told myself that S’aad was going to be f
