A mum said her "outgoing little" boy's confession "broke" her heart.
Dylan Reid was ready to start his first day of school in Liverpool after moving from Newcastle to Dovecot. But thinking a dark, purple rash covering his chest, arms and legs was potentially deadly meningitis, Kelly Ann Moore rushed her 12-year-old son to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
She "was scared, very scared" by the prospect of meningitis, but, she said, "what was worse was when we found out it was leukemia". Kelly Ann "broke down crying" when Dylan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), an aggressive and fast growing cancer diagnosed in roughly 790 people in the UK each year, according to the NHS.
READ MORE: Blood cancer red flag signs to watch out for
Mum-of-two Kelly Ann said she thought her partner was joking when he first relayed the news from the doctor. The 37-year-old told the ECHO: "I started laughing and then he says, 'I'm being serious', so I thought [Dylan] was actually going to die."
The tumour, affecting white blood cells, had pushed Dylan's heart and esophagus "to the right", filling his lungs with fluid, which required immediate surgery. Kelly Ann "couldn't sleep or anything" while waiting for the surgery to end, expecting doctors to "come back and say he was really poorly and had passed".
Dylan came out of the operating room after four hours, at which point he was put into a coma for a week and a half to help him heal. Kelly Ann said she was "hoping he would have made new friends in school, but he never got that far" and he spent the next year in hospital until April this year.
But at that point, while still undergoing chemotherapy, Dylan's cancer came back. Now 14 told his mum he was "fed up", Kelly Ann said: "He said it just wasn't worth it, he couldn't do it again.
"After all the chemo he's had, he couldn't do it. He was fed up.
"He'd been in hospital since March last year until last month. He was frustrated, angry.
"He didn't want to try the next chemo in case it didn't work. Dylan was a very outgoing little boy, he loved life, he loved everything, and just to hear him say that broke my heart."
Now on his third round of chemo, Dylan visits hospital every two weeks for injections into his spine, and he also takes intravenous and tablet forms of the treatment. He's also waiting for a bone marrow transplant surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary in November, and may need another if the first doesn't work.
Dylan's younger sister cried when the family explained why her brother is sick. Kelly said the 11-year-old "was saying she'd give up all of her bone marrow if she could but she's not a match, so we have to find someone else".
Kelly Ann, who cares for Dylan full time, said: "He's fed up, very fed up. He's had it for the past year and he just wants it to end."
For information about becoming a bone marrow donor, visit the NHS website here.
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