HEARTBREAKING REAL LIFE
Hearing a commotion from the kitchen, I scampered into the room.
My son Aaron, then four, was covered in strips of a black bin bag.
‘What on earth is going on?’ I laughed.
He’d tucked the shreds inside his clothes and was waving them at me.
‘I’m Ursula,’ he giggled. He’d made black tentacles out of a bin bag!
Aaron was Disney-mad, with one of his favourite films being The Little Mermaid.
Unlike most kids, he wasn’t rooting for the princesses. ‘Boo!’ he cried at them. He’d cheer when the villain turned up!
Dancing in front of the TV, Aaron sang along to Poor Unfortunate Souls, Mother Knows Best and Shiny.
Bursting with energy, it was hard for us to keep with him!
As parents, me and my husband Lee, 53, couldn’t wait for him to start school in September 2020.
But in April 2020, Aaron’s energy faltered.
Watching Moana at home, Aaron was beaming.
Only, the left side of his face was drooping.
When he started being sick, alarm bells started ringing.
‘There’s no pattern to it,’ I told Lee. ‘It’s not a tummy bug.’
Phoning our GP, they referred us to Deeside Community Hospital.
There, doctors suspected Aaron had Bell’s palsy.
‘If it gets worse, let us know,’ doctors said.
Within days, Aaron’s co-ordination deteriorated. He kept stumbling over. He looked like a drunk person trying to walk in a straight line.
I Googled his symptoms, and a worrying result popped up.
A brain tumour, I read. No, that can’t be it.
Nicola Wharton, 40, from Buckley, North Wales, thought her little boy would be third time lucky...
Heading to Deeside Hospital, Aaron was sent for an MRI scan.
But the machine was loud and clunky – it terrified him.
Afterwards, Lee and I were taken into a separate room.
‘The MRI has revealed a mass on the back of Aaron’s head,’ docs said.
I had so many questions. ‘So, what is it?’ I asked. ‘Is it a tumour? Is it cancerous?’
Confirming it was a small tumour, we needed to be referred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. On the drive there, Lee and I were in disbelief.
We didn’t want Aaron to know we were upset.
‘We’re going to a children’s hospital where the doctors can help you,’ I explained.
On arrival, we were met with 15 specialists.
‘This isn’t a small tumour for Aaron’s age,’ the doctor began. Learning that it was around 4cm, I was absolutely horrified. In 24 hours, Aaron needed surgery to remove the tumour. It was too much to take in. ‘You’re going to have a special sleep,’ we told A
