This amazing little boy survived a rare cancerous tumour the size of a football growing inside his stomach.
Looking at Lucas Brown, playing happily with his big brother and smiling like there’s no tomorrow, you’d never imagine that this little boy had already beaten a cancer so fierce that, by the time doctors were able to remove the tumour growing in his tiny tummy, it was already as big as a football.
After operations to remove both his cancerous kidneys, little Lucas is back at home and on the mend.
“We were horrified when the doctors told us the size of his tumour,” says Lucas’ mum, Gillian.
“It had grown so quickly. After just six weeks it was the size of a grapefruit and when it was removed, it had already grown to the size of a small football.”
“He is so lucky to have survived — he’s our little miracle.”
Gillian, who lives with partner Martin and their other sons, Sean, 15, Martin, 12, Harry, 7, and Joshua, 4, first discovered there was something wrong with Lucas as he turned six months.
“Lucas has been a really happy, healthy baby and his older brothers doted on him. He was always happy and smiling.
“But then when he was six months old he started being sick regularly and we didn’t know what was wrong with him. I took him to the GP who thought he just had a bug.
“But he didn’t get any better. The sickness just carried on and we didn’t know what to do.”
When Lucas was nine months old he was referred to hospital where doctors carried out a scan. They then delivered a devastating bombshell to his parents. Lucas had cancerous tumours on his kidneys. He was suffering from pleuropulmonary blastoma — a childhood lung cancer so rare that there were only two other known living cases in the world; one in Greece and one in Germany,
“We were just devastated when they told us that Lucas had cancer. We just couldn’t believe it.”
With one large tumour on his left kidney, Lucas’ stomach was already beginning to swell. Doctors operated to remove the tumour, which had already grown to the since of a small football and weighed more than 1.3kg — nearly the weight of two bags of sugar.
“Just before the operation he was only nine months old, but I was putting him in trousers for a two-year-old because his stomach was so big with the tumour,” says Gillian.
Lucas had his second cancerous kidney removed in March this year. Since then he has had to go on dialysis — to have his blood cleaned by a machine — three times a week, to keep him alive. He’s now having regular tests to see if the cysts on his lungs turn cancerous, but so far they have been clear.
Recovering at home, Lucas is coming on in leaps and bounds, smiling again and full of energy. He’s also learning to walk.
“And he’s having tantrums too now — just like any other normal two-year-old — which I’m thrilled about as it means he’s feeling better,” laughs Gillian.
For more true life baby stories, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale May 26).
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