First symptoms

2005 started off just like many previous years. William had a football party at our local leisure centre with his school friends to celebrate his ninth birthday. Although his official birthday was the 28th December we always held the party in January so as many of his friends could come as possible. Also, having a birthday so near Christmas meant an overload of presents so it made sense to wait a week for a party and more presents! As the year went on William seemed to have more energy than ever. Never one for sitting still, after school he would want to play football at the park weather permitting. I was usually more than eager to participate unless I’d had a particularly tiring day at work in which case I was happy to let him just play with his friends! At one time William had two of his classmates living just around the corner from our house so there was no shortage of someone to play football with. As the year went on his after school activities increased to the extent that almost everyday he was playing football, tennis, swimming or cricket. At weekends usually both days involved football training or five a side. In the summer William participated in a cross country run for his cub group. Also a sponsored six mile walk. In October he won his race in a swimming gala as well as being in the winning relay team.

There was nothing to prepare me for the fact that a few days later he would be admitted to hospital suffering from headaches, dizziness and vomiting. In November came the devastating diagnosis of a brain tumour. How could this be? How could my son be so active yet at the same time a tumour was growing inside his head? Why were there no other symptoms? Or were there? One thing a parent will do after discovering their child has a life threatening illness is ask themselves: ‘what signs did I miss?’. I have been over the year 2005 so many times in my head to see if I could have done anything earlier. William had the odd headache over the year but not many and not enough to stop him from activities. He was never sick. He did not have seizures. He did not have any weakness in his muscles. Nothing obvious to suggest a brain tumour. He did sometimes have repetitive behaviour which I thought was a habit brought on perhaps by anxiety. His handwriting was not as good as usual but sometimes he would rush his homework and his writing would not be as neat. He was more argumentative at times but William was growing up and becoming independent.

In October I remember him asking me why his eyes watered when he combed his hair. I wondered if he had pressed too hard with the comb. Well, now I know. This was due to the tumour growing and the increased cerebrospinal fluid in his brain. I also remember him being out of breath when he would run up the stairs. I wondered if he might be asthmatic. Again, now I know this was a symptom. At William’s last five-a-side game at the end of October I noticed he was falling down a lot. He also seemed tired. He certainly wasn’t himself. Sometimes I wish William had had a seizure or something very obvious to suggest something was wrong, maybe then he would have been diagnosed earlier.

I have since been told by specialists that William’s tumour was so aggressive that he was unlikely to have had it for long before diagnosis.