A "kind and brave" seven-year-old boy has died after battling a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Fletcher Discombe was affectionately known as Tigger because he was always bouncing around before he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in May 2022.
Fletcher, from Devon, had developed a lump in his neck just before his family were due to move abroad. Doctors initially thought it could be a swollen lymph node, but when he started to lose his vision, further tests revealed he had a large tumour behind his nose, DevonLive reports.
The brave little boy was rushed to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children where he underwent a gruelling but successful operation lasting 15 hours to save his eyesight. The rare type of cancer Fletcher had had formed in his skeletal muscle tissue and had spread to his bone marrow and lungs.
He was given around a 20 per cent chance of survival. Despite the devastating news, Fletcher's mum Kat said the family tried to stay positive for their little boy, who became very sick after starting chemotherapy.
As the family were due to move abroad, they had sold their house - so Kat said they had to move in with their parents while they tried to rebuild their lives and deal with Fletcher's illness.
Kat explained: "Fletch had scans after three months of treatment. We were told that the PET scan showed no evidence of disease and the tumour had almost completely gone in his head. His bone marrow was also clear. This was the best news we could have hoped for."
Last September, Fletch started radiotherapy but had been struggling to eat, swallow and talk due to suffering badly with mucositis - a common side effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Despite appearing to get better, on a return trip back home from the RD&E, Fletcher had a massive seizure in the back of the car.
Kat recalled: "We thought we had lost him. I called an ambulance but was told they were all busy. I drove him quickly to A&E at Torbay Hospital where he was intubated and put in the intensive care unit (ICU).
"The hospital didn’t have a paediatric ICU so they were trying to get us back to Bristol as soon as possible. After a night there, we were told Bristol didn’t have enough beds which was upsetting to hear as we felt this is where he needed to be.
"An MRI was carried out and we were told it was possibly radiotherapy side effects or meningitis. Eventually, we were transferred to Oxford as this was the only place available.
"Ironically, it was the hospital I was born in, and at least it meant we had some family close by to look after our eldest child Erin. Fletch was able to breathe on his own and seemed to respond well to us."
However, he then suffered two more seizures, the last taking a detrimental toll on his health. Kat said: "Unfortunately, due to the fact he had had such a long seizure, he lost the ability to talk to us. After days and hours of waiting we were told the MRI scan showed evidence of cancer on his brain and spine which was causing the seizures.
"We were then taken to a side room and told there was nothing that could be done for Fletch and they would try to move him to a hospice."
Fletcher was transferred to Charlton Farm Children's Hospice in Bristol and had been given just days to live. He fought for a further two weeks and passed away on November 16, with his parents by his side.
Paying tribute to their son, Kat said: "Fletch was a fighter, he never complained throughout treatment. The only times he really got upset was when he was neutropenic from the chemotherapy which caused a high temperature.
"This meant trips back to the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours of antibiotics. Fletch was an absolute lover of life, he was the kindest, bravest boy who adored his sister and would often want to buy her flowers. Losing him has broken us all."
To try and prevent further tragedies, Fletcher's parents Kat and Tony, who are now living in Newton Abbot, have just launched a fundraiser called Fletcher's Arc in association with children's cancer charity Alice's Arc. The charity is dedicated to finding a cure and kinder, more targeted treatments for those diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.
The Arcs platform has been created to honour children and young people's experiences with rhabdomyosarcoma. The stories of children and young people currently fighting the disease, who have survived the disease and those who have died as a result of the disease are shared.
The Arcs enable families to come together to pool funds for research, to advocate for change and to provide a family support network.
Kat said: "We have launched Fletchers Arc under Alice’s Arc Charity to help raise awareness of Rhabdomyosarcoma and childhood cancer and to also raise money to fund vital research into this particular cancer. Unfortunately, there is only three per cent of funding allocated to children's cancer which is just not enough.
"Any donation no matter how small will go some way to helping other children in the future." To donate to the fundraiser please click here.
