Final outcome

Halfway through William’s course of chemotherapy in August, he did not seem to recover as well as usual and he had to go to William Harvey Hospital because of sickness and dehydration. It was felt William had an infection and many tests were carried out to find the source of the infection but nothing was found.

He was then transferred to the paediatric infection control ward at St George’s Hospital in Tooting. Many more scans and blood tests were carried out before we were informed that it was likely he had an infection in his liver. We also found out that the cancer had spread to his bones and bone marrow. We were told that this was a very rare occurrence as usually the cancer does not spread further than the brain and spine, and that William had to start on a different chemotherapy protocol.

Despite all the invasive treatment he had he remained polite and uncomplaining, always saying please and thank you to the nurses. Sadly William started to deteriorate and was taken to Paediatric Intensive Care. Finally, his body could no longer cope and he passed away on the 20th October with all of his family around him. Two days before he died he was sitting in a chair reading his football magazine and was looking forward to starting yet another football sticker collection. He was also still able to smile. At the end it all happened so suddenly and was really unexpected. It was a great shock to us all, including the medical staff.

Before all this William had been responding so well to his treatment and we all felt he had a future which makes it harder to understand and come to terms with. We may never come to terms with it but one thing no one who knew William will ever forget was his sheer courage and bravery throughout. He never lost his sense of humour and that gave us, his family, the strength to carry on.
One thing we can be sure of, William is now in heaven being looked after by his grandparents and playing football to his heart’s content!