Celebrity Gogglebox returned this week with its Stand Up To Cancer edition, with Welsh stars Charlotte Church and Luke Evans joining the likes of chef Gordon Ramsay and his daughter Matilda, Spice Girls' Mel B and comedian Ruby Wax, as well as the rest of the regular cast of the hit Channel 4 show.
Welsh friends singer Charlotte Church and actor Luke Evans, who recently worked together on a song, were sitting down with a glass of wine each to give their thoughts on some of this week's TV, including an episode of Love is Blind, I Can See Your Voice and Only Connect.
But the duo, alongside the rest of the TV show's cast, were particularly moved by the story of young Dylan-James. In a short film, his mother Alison spoke of the time she met her childhood sweetheart, Warren. When the couple moved in together, they decided it was the right time to start a family.
Read more: When is the Welsh version of Gogglebox on TV and where's it being filmed?
But following a health check-up, Alison was told she had ovarian cancer and was told that it would be difficult for her to have children. "And that's why it was such a delight when I conceived," Alison later said. She gave birth to Dylan-James, who arrived two months early.
When Dylan-James was two years old however, he had a fever and was taken to A&E, where a consultant told his parents he would have to go for a scan. He was later diagnosed with a tumour on his kidney called Wilms' tumour. The family were told that it was a curable cancer and that he would undergo a 12-month high dose chemotherapy treatment plan alongside a major surgery to remove the tumour.
"Everything was going really well," Alison explained. "And then, one day he announced: 'I've got a ghost in my tummy'. And he had a scan, and they said: 'It has progressed to stage 4, because the cancer is in his lungs.'
"I said: 'do whatever it takes, I can't lose him', but then they said: 'there's nothing else we can do, he's got two months'. My heart was breaking in place I didn't know was possible. I had to look at him and just smile because I didn't want to have to tell him. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do."
Dylan-James sadly passed away on June 22, 2018 at the age of three. In response to Alison's words, American screenwriter and Tom Daley's husband, Dustin Lance Black told Tom: "We've both been through this - losing people to cancer. But that, to lose a child like that, that is brutal."
In tears, Gogglebox regular Pete told his sister Sophie: "The scary thing is that this could be anybody in the same position. When you have children, life is so precious, you just don't realise how lucky we are. We need to find a cure, nobody should be going through this - three years old and he is having his life taken away."
Before the airing of Friday's episode, of being part of the show, Charlotte said: "Cancer affects so many – with one in two of us getting a diagnosis in our lifetime – so we’re delighted we can play a small part in supporting the incredible work being done by Stand Up To Cancer."
READ NEXT:
