Elliott’s Warrior Fund has been created to raise money for important research into childhood leukaemia through Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), a leading children’s cancer charity and the UK and Ireland’s professional association for those involved in the treatment and care of children with cancer. This is for Elliott and all the Warriors that he has met on his journey and for all those who will experience this heart breaking journey.
‘If you ever see a child fighting cancer it will change your outlook forever.’
Our beautiful boy Elliott was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in August 2014 a month after his 5th birthday. Elliott had just finished his first year in Reception when he became unwell. Initially he just had a temperature on and off and was extremely tired but to start with we just thought he was worn out from his first year at school. We took him to the doctors who initially prescribed a course of antibiotics but when we returned luckily the doctors instinct told her Elliott wasn’t well so we were sent to hospital. Early hours of the next morning we were told that they suspected Elliott had leukaemia but we would go to Addenbrookes in the morning where they would carry out a lumbar puncture to take bone marrow to confirm that it was leukaemia and what type.
Later that day it was confirmed that it was the most common form, ALL, and that he would undergo treatment for just over 3 years, he had his first dose of chemotherapy that day. I will never forget hearing those words and that day our lives changed forever.
The first six months of treatment were extremely intense involving blood transfusions, lumbar punctures, high doses of steroids, antibiotics, antifungal, preventative antibiotics and 145 doses of chemotherapy given in various different forms, orally, injected into the spine under a general anaesthetic, directly into the blood stream through a cannula or Hickman line and injected into muscles. At this time Elliott lost all his hair and became unrecognisable to the little boy he was before treatment however Elliott still continued to smile. As a parent it is devastating to watch and we would have done anything to take away everything that he had to go through.
In February 2015 Elliott then started the maintenance phase of treatment which was not as intense but still involved approximately 440 doses of chemo a year unless his weekly blood results were too low when all chemo would have to be stopped.
When I put into words what he has been through it is difficult to comprehend, but whilst our treatment was successful we know how lucky we are and to contemplate the alternative is unimaginable. We are truly blessed that his treatment has worked and we can only hope that the long term side effects will be minimal. We count our blessings every day that Elliott has remained cancer free since October 2017. However, we are all too aware that things can change in an instant and devastatingly some of the children Elliott has met along his journey have not been so lucky and gained their angel wings way too soon, those children will remain in our hearts forever.
Our hope is to raise money to continue to improve the treatments and find a cure for childhood leukaemia so in the future families will always receive a positive prognosis.
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Elliott's merchandise
News
Go Gold Glitter Ball raises more than £11,000
Quiz night in support of Elliott raises over £4,000!
Research projects funded
Can we prevent leukaemia in children?
Investigating novel drug combinations for acute myeloid leukaemia
Improving the outlook for children with Philadelphia positive ALL
Fundraising pages
Text CCLGELLIOTT to 70450 to donate £5.
CCLG will receive 100% of your donation. You may also be charged for one text message at your network’s standard or charity rate.
You can make a donation or pay in funds raised by cheque, payable to CCLG, to CCLG, Century House, 24 De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GB. Please ensure you make it clear that the donation is for Elliott's Warrior Fund so that your donation is allocated to the correct fund.