Rory's Story

Rory’s journey began in December 2022, when he began becoming unwell with high temperatures and infections.

He was being sent home from nursery regularly, once a week at a minimum. We were regularly visiting the GP and out of hours doctors. Rory had multiple sets of antibiotics to clear the infections and Rory’s nursery multiple times expressed concern to us as to him being continually unwell.

We shared this concern but were at a loss of what to do. We had questioned the doctors to whether he needed a blood test or future investigations to rule out underlining issues.

On July 18th 2023, I took Rory to nursery, after a really tough night of him not settling and being very upset. I remember taking him in and the nursery staff commenting on how pale and unwell he looked. After two stressful and emotional phone calls to the doctors they eventually agreed to see him.

I took Rory to the GP surgery in the afternoon, where he received a thorough check up. The doctor noted he had an edge on his liver but that she did not know what was causing his illnesses.

We were referred to our local children A&E at James Cook Hospital with a letter. In A&E the doctor requested a blood test which eventually gave Rory his diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

We were moved to the RVI Newcastle and stayed there for 9 days before being sent home.
Rory had to attend hospital every other day for 6 weeks between December and January due to his body rejecting the PEG asaparaginaise, and needing to move to Erwinase. This meant he was in hospital Christmas Day too.

Rory is responding to treatment and has reached remission, however he will not finish his treatment plan until end of August 2025.
Rory has two siblings aged 9, who have coped incredible with Rory’s illness, the last minute dashes to hospital and everything that comes with a cancer diagnosis.

We really need to break away and thank everyone Ben Saunders Foundation for making this possible.