EXTERMINATE REAL LIFE
Shelley Herniman, 52, from Chepstow, is mum to a Time Lord, who has some requests as he fights a monster...
Hearing the iconic whirl of the TARDIS, Icould have resighted the entire theme from memory.
Doctor Who was permanently imprinted in my brain, thanks to my very own Time Lord Noah, now 18.
‘You can’t watch that,’ I’d tease, when Noah was just three years old.
Ithought he’d be scared of it, but that wasn’t the case at all.
And somewhere along the lines, Doctor Who became more than just astory –it was alifestyle.
Me and my hubby Nigel were reminded of that daily.
Noah’s bedroom was completely covered in all sorts of different memorabilia.
Anything from sonic screwdrivers to past Time Lords, too.
Only, there was something that Noah had always been pining for.
‘I want aDalek,’ he’d beg. ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Noah,’ I’d laugh. ‘When you’re old enough to buy your own, you can have one.’
However, as well as having a passion for the TV show, Noah also loved to fundraise for the local community.
Donating Easter eggs to the Cardiff Homeless Project and looking out for vulnerable children at school, Noah was very happy being himself. He’d always been resilient. Diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 1, NF1, when he was born, it was acondition that meant benign tumours would grow along the nerves in his body.
Thankfully for Noah, he was always monitored and NF1 never had an impact.
For him, the biggest problem would be freckles, that looked like birthmarks. And over the years, I’d learnt to keep an eye on him. Which is why, in 2020, alarm bells started to ring.
Noticing that Noah, then 15, had been off his food, he’d have trouble swallowing.
However, with Noah’s annual scan postponed due to Covid, we couldn’t have any answers until March 2021.
I was unable to say anything
Booked in to discuss the scan results as usual on 30 June 2021 at Heath Hospital, Chepstow, I didn’t think that much of it all.
With Nigel parking the car, he had to wait outside due to restrictions.
‘Noah has alow-grade benign glioma in his brain stem,’ the doctor revealed. ‘It is inoperable.’
Not hearing anything else, I was unable to speak – completely stunned.
‘How do we go forward with this?’ Noah asked, coming into his own.
‘The only option would be chemo,’ the doctor replied.
Finding out more, Noah’s brain tumour was in a place where monitoring its size was the only option.
And due to NF1 having very little research, it was hard to determine whether the brain tumour was caused by his condition or not.
With no surgery possible, chemo would hopefully reduce its growth.
‘Will it kill me?’ Noah
