Seraph

Seraph’s story

In 2017, Seraph was just a normal three-year-old, finding his feet at nursery, making new friends, and climbing on everything! 

One night, just before Christmas, he fell out of his cot and broke his arm. “Just our luck, we thought. Not knowing what was to come,” says Seraph's mum, Cass. “Over Christmas, he still seemed in a lot of pain, so we returned to hospital.” An exploratory ultrasound revealed a tumour in his abdomen and further investigation showed the cancer was in his skeleton and bone marrow. 

Treatment 

Seraph began his extensive treatment journey after diagnosis. He received three different types of chemotherapy (which has left him with long-term side-effects like hearing loss), stem cell transplant (which had him in isolation for a month, and in hospital for two), radiotherapy and antibody. 

“He was the first child at Addenbrooke’s to undergo five weeks of radiotherapy for this disease, and did each day without general anaesthetic, which we’re told is unusual for a child so young,” says Cass. 

Reaching remission and travelling to New York 

After finishing treatment in May 2019, Seraph and his family received the amazing news that he was in remission. Seraph’s family decided to access further treatment in the hope of preventing the cancer from coming back through a clinical trial in New York. 

Seraph completed the bivalent vaccine clinical trial in August 2020, after the generous support for the fundraising campaign they held with Solving Kids’ Cancer UK. He is now eight years old and remains in remission and is doing great. 

_{Solving Kids' Cancer UK's children's fundraising campaigns} 

_{Funds raised will go towards helping Seraph and his family. If Seraph no longer needs the funds or is in remission five years post the end of successful treatment, the funds will be used to support other children and families affected by neuroblastoma through our activities. For children with high-risk neuroblastoma, like Seraph the survival rate is much lower than other childhood cancers. Upon relapse, this rate reduces even further.}