My 3 year old has cancer, and what I'm going to do about it

[Big Jim]

Hi,
My 3 year old son William Lyne was first diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia Type M7 in Feb 2011 (aged 2 at that time). He presented with a lot of pain early on and needed a constant morphine background to help through the days. “AML” is the Adult form of the disease (as opposed to the commonest form of “ALL” in children which thanks to research has a significantly better outlook).

He was treated as an inpatient at the Royal Marsden in Sutton, England until July 2011 when we were advised his chance of relapse was only 30%.

We were always advised that a relapse within a year would not be good as it would be hard to get William back into remission again, so were always on edge during this period.

Unfortunately William relapsed over Christmas (Christmas day was the first major and clear sign of a relapse). He has since had 3 courses of strong Chemotherapy again as an inpatient at the Royal Marsden in Sutton and is due a to start a bone marrow transplant (the only known cure following a relapse) today (15/4/12) again as an inpatient at the Marsden. His current chances of survival/ mortality are 50:50. The bone marrow transplant will take an average of 6 weeks as an inpatient, then many months of worry about virus/ infections which can (and have recently been seen to be) be fatal. Though clearly having a transplant in the summer is advantageous with respect to catching a Virus.

Though I wish I could cure this horrible disease, I know this is beyond me, though I can support the people who can make a difference with financial support.

With this my brother David and I + my friend/ colleague Paul Richardson have decided to cycle around the Island of Zealand in Denmark (around 260 miles) in September this year with the hope to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. We plan to do the ride over 5 days.


Our charity link is:

http://www.justgiving.com/williamlyne

Though you can equally donate by mobile phone text (SMS) i.e. Lyne55 £1/ £2/ £5/ £10 TO 70070 to donate. e.g. texting LYNE55 £2 - donates two pounds.

I hope you will support me in my quest to prevent other children getting this horrendous disease.

Regards.,

James Lyne

 

[Brandane]

As a non-parent, I can only try to imagine how distressing this illness must be for William, yourself and the rest of your family. Good luck with your fundraising, and best wishes to William for a full recovery. I was going to take the motorbike out for a wee blast today, but will go for a cycle instead. Petrol money saved added to your fund via above link.

 

[Big Jim]

As a non-parent, I can only try to imagine how distressing this illness must be for William, yourself and the rest of your family. Good luck with your fundraising, and best wishes to William for a full recovery. I was going to take the motorbike out for a wee blast today, but will go for a cycle instead. Petrol money saved added to your fund via above link.

Thanks BRandane. Good on you for doing this. Hope you miss the rain.

 

[VamP]

Good luck with the ride.

Well done to you and to William for taking this on so courageously. I will keep you in my prayers. Donation made.

 

[pubrunner]

Hi,

Our charity link is:

http://www.justgiving.com/williamlyne

Hi James,

Just tried the link, but I can't get it to work ? I've done a search on your son's name, but can't find anything ?

I hope that all goes well and that William has the best possible outcome.

 

[Big Jim]

Hi James,

Just tried the link, but I can't get it to work ? I've done a search on your son's name, but can't find anything ?

I hope that all goes well and that William has the best possible outcome.

Really. ohh. It works when I click on it. I wonder why.

try cutting and pasting it in. http://www.justgiving.com/williamlyne

thanks for letting me know there's a problem though.

 

[Big Jim]

Good luck with the ride.

Well done to you and to William for taking this on so courageously. I will keep you in my prayers. Donation made.

Thanks VamP for the donation and prayers. Hopefully all will be ok.

 

[Panter]

I can only offer my best wishes to you all, I just don't have the capacity to imagine what you're going through.
Anyway, made a donation.

 

[Big Jim]

I can only offer my best wishes to you all, I just don't have the capacity to imagine what you're going through.
Anyway, made a donation.

Thanks Panter. It's very much appreciated.

 

[Big Jim]

Can anyone give me a bit of advice with regards to bikes on Aircrafts?
I've asked around to see if any company can rent a bike box to us, and also asked the charity about this. Wiggle were really good and helpful, though could only supply soft bags.
But the current sugestions is to use some of the boxes that bikes are delivered in. I can get these for free from my local Wiggle store.

Has anybody done this with a bike before? Any advice?

 

[Dave Davenport]

How you need to pack your bike will depend on which airline you're using. If you're local to Wiggle you're not far from me, I've got two padded soft bags with lots of home made extra packing bits (fork spacers etc.) that you're welcome to borrow.

What made you decide on Denmark and not something in the UK?

 

[fungus]

I hope the ride goes well Big Jim, but most importantly my wishes are with William & a full recovery.

 

[Big Jim]

How you need to pack your bike will depend on which airline you're using. If you're local to Wiggle you're not far from me, I've got two padded soft bags with lots of home made extra packing bits (fork spacers etc.) that you're welcome to borrow.

What made you decide on Denmark and not something in the UK?

Hi Dave.
Two reasons for Denmark. 1, my brother lives there in the middle of Zealand. 2, there are loads of cycle paths i.e avoiding the road as much as possible. A particularly cycle friendly country. I think also it's somewhere different if that makes sense.Though we're all keen cyclists, we're not super fit and used to this sort of thing. So it will be a big challenge. I mean we do 30 mile rides every now and then, but not the london to brighton, etc.

We're about 60 miles from Wiggle, thanks for the offer we'll weigh up our options. We'll most likely be using Easyjet who have replied to an email saying cardboard is ok. Just wondering if boxes with bubble wrap an all is better than bike bags.We still have a bit of time to work things out.

thanks again
James

 

[Big Jim]

I hope the ride goes well Big Jim, but most importantly my wishes are with William & a full recovery.

Thanks Fungus. Very much appreciated + the donation

 

[e-rider]

This is a heartbreaking story. I really hope that your son gets through this, and hopefully you can make every day for him as joyful and fun as possible just in case the worst happens. All my best wishes to you and your son.