The father of a dying boy says his family is broken after his 10-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer which is inoperable and incurable. Jamie Bottomley, 37, told Nottinghamshire Live that the family is devastated, after his son, Lucas, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG).
Jamie is fundraising for his son to get to Disneyland for Lucas’ remaining time with the family. In March this year, Lucas, who loves playing Minecraft, started being sick regularly for no reason. The family took him to the GP where he was then referred to the Queen's Medical Centre for an MRI scan.
The father said: "He started being sick roughly six or seven weeks ago now. He woke up in the morning and was sick. We didn't really think too much of it. He was fine for the rest of the day then it happened again the following week and it happened regularly so we took him to the GP."
Mr Bottomley added: “He started getting dizzy, he had blood tests and was referred to a stomach specialist. He started getting worse and worse, deteriorating really fast.” Lucas was referred to Leicester Royal Infirmary, and then to Queen's Medical Centre, where he had a MRI scan. The family recalled the moment when they received the devastating news.
Mr Bottomley said: “I got a phone call from his mum, Kim, saying that they had found a mass on his brain, my heart sunk and I broke into tears and drove to Leicester as quickly as I could."
DIPG is a rare form of cancer, which mainly affects children between the ages of three to nine. It’s a highly aggressive brain tumour. Radiotherapy will often alleviate the symptoms and will allow for a return to normality for a month or two, however death usually follows within six months.
“They told us it was inoperable, incurable, and they couldn’t do any type of chemo on it, no clinical trials, all they could do is give him radiotherapy which will ultimately last around six months before it comes back and then kills him,” Mr Bottomley said.
“We are broken and didn’t believe what we were hearing, you kind of prepare yourself for your parents or yourself but when it’s your nine-year-old boy, which he was at the time, a week before his 10th birthday... None of us were prepared for it, it’s awful."
Lucas has started radiotherapy this week, which the family hopes will make him better to get to Disneyland. Mr Bottomley said: “He is a lovely little boy. He is ever so polite, friendly and outgoing he will chat to anyone. Everyone that knows him loves him to bits.”
Mr Bottomley, from Rutland, Leicestershire, has set up a GoFundMe to raise money to get Lucas to Disneyland. Since then there have been many donations.
Mr Bottomley said: “The amount of support we have had from friends, family, strangers, people from all over the world has been absolutely amazing. I can't believe it has done so well. I didn’t expect anything like that.” Donate to Lucas’ GoFundMe here.
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