Archie's Story

On 5th October 2020 at 4.5 months old, our precious Archie was diagnosed with Infant ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) 💔 he instantly started chemotherapy and the John Radcliffe Hospital quickly became our second home.

In March 2021 Archie had his first bone marrow transplant. Freddie was a complete match and donated his bone marrow to his baby brother, we were (and still are) so proud of them both.

We had to go to Bristol childrens hospital for the bone marrow transplant and we spent 7 weeks as an inpatient and a further month living in Bristol as an outpatient.

Initially the transplant had worked and Archie was 100% Freddie! But heartbreak was soon to follow and we had only been home in Oxford a couple of days when Archie had a blood test that showed he had relapsed 💔 he then had further treatment in Oxford to hold the disease until he then went to Great Ormond Street Hospital in July for CAR-T therapy.

We were there for a month as an inpatient and this involved an intensive care admission too. We finally got home at the end of August and in early September found out that Archie was in remission and clear of Leukemia. Freddie at this point was only 4 and had coped with so much with mummy, daddy and Archie being away from home whilst he stayed with Nanny and Grandad in the week and then came to visit at weekends, he took it all in his stride and never complained, he just always wanted to know if Archie was ok.

We were starting to get used to living a bit more of a normal life for a couple of months, when in November 2021 our world fell apart once again and we were told Archie's Leukemia had come back again and this time was not curable. We were told he had likely weeks to live and would unlikely see Christmas. I can't explain the devastation.

In true Archie style he had other ideas and continued to stay well and went into 2022 full of life and had only low levels of Leukemia (however it was still there). We were then contacted by a professor in Manchester who was running a trial for a different type of transplant and said Archie would be suitable. In April 2022 we went to Manchester, miles away from home again but willing to do anything to try and save our precious boy. Archie ended up having 2 transplants in Manchester due to the first one failing. He then developed lots of complications and ended up in intensive care.

On 7th July 2022, aged just 2 years old, our sunshine boy, took his last breath in Mummy and Daddy's arms and our lives have not been the same since.

We miss Archie everyday, his laugh, his smile and especially his cuddles. He was everyone's best friend. In January this year we welcomed Freddie and Archie's baby sister into our family, our little girl Lyla. Her middle name is May in honour of the month Archie was born in. She is a poppet and Archie would of adored her.

We make sure we tell her all about her Gruffalo loving big brother in the sky ✨️ We are looking forward to time away together as we approach the 2 year anniversary of losing Archie. It's also somewhere we took Archie on a mini holiday, so we will remember those special times whilst there.

Thank you for gifting us this wonderful break. Love the Afford's xxxxx