Gwynedd 12-year-old faces 4,000 mile trip to USA for cancer treatment
A family are facing the prospect of travelling more than 4,000 miles for treatment for their 12-year-old son.
Kaiden Pritchard, 12, of Caernarfon , was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma – a rare form of childhood cancer – after a lump was found in his mouth at the end of March.
Following treatment at Alder Hey in Liverpool, his family are now waiting to learn whether Kaiden can travel to the USA for proton specialised radiotherapy.
The treatment would take place in hospitals in either Jacksonville, Florida or Oklahoma City, where he could be expected to spend up to 10 weeks.
Friends of Kaiden are collecting money to help pay for his family to accompany him.
They first started raising money for Kaiden to help pay for food and fuel while he was being treated at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool.
Speaking from his bedside at Alder Hey, dad Arwel, 31, said: “Kaiden found the lump on the palate at the top of his mouth. He showed it to his nain first and then to us.
“It was quite large – around the size of a two-penny piece – and it was hanging down.
“I didn’t know what it was and thought it was a large blister.
“We took him to casualty at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor and they didn’t really know and referred him to the ear, nose and throat (ENT) department for a biopsy.”
Doctors removed the tumour and said they would let the family know a fortnight later.
Within a week they were given the diagnosis at Ysbyty Gwynedd.
Arwel said: “We were told it was rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a rare form of cancer but treatable.
“Kaiden took it quite well – he’s quite easy-going. There were a few tears, but he’s tougher than us!”
Kaiden, a Year 7 pupil of Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen, Caernarfon, is now on his second of nine courses of chemotherapy.
The treatment at Alder Hey is likely to last the best part of a year.
Arwel said: “Radiotherapy can be risky but the proton radiotherapy would be better for him because it is a specialised and targeted form of radiation.”
NHS specialists have given their go-ahead to fund the treatment and accommodation in the US, but the family would need money to pay for their living expenses.
Arwel has being taking time out from his job with Gwynedd Council while mum Hayley, 32, has been sleeping on a folding bed next to her son. Kaiden’s nain has been looking after his brothers, Kian, 10, Konner, nine, and Kelt, seven, – all pupils at Ysgol Maesincla, Caernarfon.
Kaiden’s friend Leah Jones, who set up ‘piggy-bank-i-kaiden-a’i-deulu’ on Go Fund Me, said it was for “treats” and “so that the family can do some nice things together between treatments”.
Another friend, Ceryl Tindall-Jones, will be doing a 10-hour Spin Bike Challenge on June 11, and Beti Pierce is to run the Felinheli 10k on June 28 to help raise money.
Arwel said: “There are some very kind people around. Lots of people have raised money, including a quiz night at Y Fic, Y Felinheli, and Neil Robertys (Nicw) is organising a fancy dress pub crawl around Caernarfon on May 27.
Arwel said: “The nurses and medical staff have been great and we hear a lot of Welsh spoken here (at Alder Hey).
“We’re also getting lots of support from Clic/Sargent.”
He added: “We’re full of hope because the prognosis is that it is curable. The cancer has not spread and it was found early enough.”
Anybody wanting to support the family can do so on the ‘piggy-bank-i-kaiden-a’i-deulu’ Go Fund Me page .
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