A heartbroken family has paid tribute to a "happy and cheeky" six-year-old boy who died from incurable cancer.
Aaron Todd and Gemma O’Connell were told their beloved son Dylan O’Connell, then five, had leukaemia in May last year.
The disease was so aggressive that Dylan had to immediately start intensive chemotherapy, alongside blood and platelet transfusions and they were sadly told it was incurable just before Christmas. Tragically, the brave little boy lost his fight and passed away on June 15 leaving his parents and little sister Riley heartbroken.
Paying tribute to her son, Gemma, from North Shields, said Dylan was a "lovely and happy" boy who was "obsessed" with gaming. She said: "Everyone loved Dylan and thought he was the most lovely boy. He was just a happy, cheeky boy. He was obsessed with gaming, he took it to the next level! He had his Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and his gaming PC.
"He also wanted to become a YouTuber doing videos of him playing games so he did a few of them and that's how outgoing he was. His confidence had dropped a bit but we always encouraged him to be himself and get that confidence back."
Gemma said Dylan was robbed of a lot of his childhood by being in and out of hospital but said they spent the last months of his life doing things he wanted to do.
She said: "Dylan didn't have much of a childhood because he was in and out of the hospital. He only just started going out and playing with his friends before he got diagnosed so it felt really unfair.
"We had always been sheltering in the house but we had to break that and get him out doing things he wanted to do. We took him to the arcades because he loved arcade games and we took him to the zoo. People came to visit him as well.
"We were just trying to get him out as much as we could and do what he wanted to do. We managed to get away to a lodge for a week too which was lovely."
Dylan's little sister Riley donated 85% of her bone marrow for a transplant for her beloved big brother when she was just one-year-old giving Dylan more precious time with his family.
Gemma said: "Their bond is amazing, his little sister is what kept him going. She was the one who donated bone marrow and so she gave him an extra eight months so we could make more memories together."
The parents also hope to raise awareness about leukaemia and some of the symptoms Dylan experienced. Aaron and Gemma originally took Dylan to A&E on May 11 when they spotted a rash on his body that didn’t disappear under a glass and on May 18, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
Gemma said: "I don't think there is enough awareness about it, Dylan was ill before we got a diagnosis but everyone thought it was viral. We never thought it would be something else, especially leukaemia.
"He was just really pale and he had a little rash. He was always having night sweats and he had tonsillitis three times, he was just completely drained but we believed it was something viral so we really want to raise awareness."
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