A Telford youngster who is recovering from leukaemia has been featured in a national fundraising appeal that has raised over £100,000.
Tommy Edwards was just four years old when his parents, Jo and Chris Edwards noticed symptoms suggesting something wasn’t right with the Telford youngster.
In March 2022, a visit to their GP saw them sent straight to the Princess Royal Hospital and tests revealed Tommy had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
Now, the family's story is being featured in a national fundraising campaign that has raised over £100,000 for cancer research.
Tommy Edwards was just four years old when his parents, Jo and Chris Edwards noticed symptoms suggesting something wasn’t right with the Telford youngster.
In March 2022, a visit to their GP saw them sent straight to the Princess Royal Hospital and tests revealed Tommy had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
Now, the family's story is being featured in a national fundraising campaign that has raised over £100,000 for cancer research.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 It feels like your whole world has been thrown up in the air,
00:07 and everything is spinning around,
00:10 and you don't know where things are going to land.
00:12 When the doctor said when he thought it was,
00:15 it felt like I'd been punched in the stomach by a boxer.
00:20 I'm Jo, and this is Chris.
00:22 And our son Tommy has cancer.
00:25 Tommy's seven, and he's a typical boy.
00:29 He's boisterous.
00:32 He loves Marvel.
00:34 Just before Tommy was diagnosed, we were out on a family walk,
00:38 and Tommy was asking if I could carry him,
00:41 because his legs were hurting him.
00:43 The next morning, his teacher called saying she
00:45 didn't think he was right.
00:46 He was just exhausted.
00:48 From there, we were at the GP, off to the hospital,
00:50 and it all started.
00:53 It was really hard hearing that he'd got leukemia.
00:57 It was difficult at first to come
00:58 to terms with the idea that we were actually
01:01 putting something toxic into him,
01:03 that that was actually the route to getting rid of this cancer.
01:11 When I read about the work that the Institute of Cancer Research
01:14 do, and specifically the work that they're
01:17 doing to try and find a prevention for leukemia,
01:20 it really struck a chord with us.
01:22 It was great to see the scientists trying
01:24 to get to the root cause of why some of these cancers occur,
01:28 and ways to find better kind of treatments.
01:31 It was quite overwhelming, actually,
01:33 to see it all in action.
01:36 There's work going on here by some brilliant people
01:39 to try and make treatment better in the future,
01:41 kinder, less intensive on the individuals.
01:46 Now we are two and a half years down the line.
01:48 We're lucky that we've got to this stage,
01:50 and we feel like we're on the home run
01:53 to the end of treatment now.
01:55 Tommy's treatment has just--
01:58 he's responded so well.
01:59 And I think he's such a strong-minded character
02:02 that it won't hold him back in life.
02:05 Yeah, my hope really is that he just
02:07 can lead a normal, happy, healthy life.
02:11 To us, it's important to try and do our bit to help.
02:15 And less children, less families have to go through all this
02:18 in the future.
02:21 At the Institute of Cancer Research,
02:23 we're working to make safer, kinder, and more effective
02:26 treatments a reality for children with cancer.
02:30 With your help, we can cure more children with cancer more
02:33 kindly.
02:34 Please donate today.
02:36 Let's finish cancer together.
02:39 (upbeat music)