The family of a boy from Chelmsford who has an aggressive cancer and was given only a few years to live is desperately raising funds to enroll him in a drug trial in Italy. Ellis Wild was diagnosed with high risk stage four Neuroblastoma in February 2021, when he was just three years old.
The youngster – who lives in Writtle with his mum Tracy, 51, and Amy, 39 – has undergone multiple treatments and continues to battle the condition. The family had exhausted all available NHS health care, including chemotherapy, but Ellis had previously relapsed and one of their last opportunities lay in a specialist drug trial in the Italian capital, Rome.
According to Children With Cancer UK, babies diagnosed with Neuroblastoma have only a five-year survival rate of 43 percent when they are between one and four years old; compared with an 83 percent survival rate if diagnosed before one year of age.
“Looking back, maybe the signs were on our faces long before he was finally diagnosed,” Tracy said EssexLive. “Ellis regularly woke up in the night thrashing and crying, sometimes three or four times a night.
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“As first-time parents, we assumed she was having nightmares and we would spend hours comforting her back to sleep. She would be sweating profusely to the point that her pajamas were soaked the next morning. Never for a minute did we imagine it could be something like this. serious as cancer.”
Despite a two year journey that involved a lengthy stay at Great Ormond Street Hospital with months of chemotherapy treatment, Ellis continued to show himself to be a brave warrior. The little boy, who loves zoo animals and pizza, has had some hair growing back thanks to a UK-based drug trial but, after consuming everything the NHS has to offer, the Wild family must now find around €270,000 (£232k) to register Ellis on the Italian drug trial.
More than £70,000 has so far been raised thanks to community events – including one where hundreds queued in the rain for a fun family day in support of Ellis – but the family admits there is “a long way to go”.
Mum Tracy, 51, said of her son, now five: “If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t smile every day. He’s quite sensitive and wants to make people laugh – even if he’s pretty low-key.
“He very rarely complains about anything. Sometimes he’s in a lot of pain but he won’t tell you that. He tries so hard to keep our spirits up too.”
He added: “People say that if you meet Ellis you never forget him. He definitely had an impact on everyone who met him. He was funny and brave, he didn’t like being complimented. We always tried to tell him how he was amazing but he did not want to accept it.He was very humble.
“He’s an adrenaline junkie. He’d say he’s not afraid of anything. He likes to take risks. Offer him something to do and he’ll do it. Despite everything he’s going through, his energy is incredible.
“He did parkour around the house. He didn’t just walk around, he would jump from furniture to furniture. That was who he was. He lived for fun, loved adventure.”
The Wild family continues to raise money to support Ellis with a GoFundMe page, JustGiving page and special events.
What are the symptoms of Neuroblastoma?
According to Children With Cancer UK, there are a number of standard symptoms that may indicate a neuroblastoma. They include:
- Loss of appetite
- Fatigue
- Bone pain
- Small blue bumps
- Weakness in the legs
- Swollen belly
- Difficulty swallowing and breathing
Various tests are needed to diagnose neuroblastoma cancer. They can include blood, urine or bone marrow tests, X-rays, CT or MRI scans and more.
The stage of the cancer describes how far it has grown or spread. Stage one means the tumor is in one area of ​​the body and can be removed completely by surgery. Stage four means the cancer has spread to parts of the body that are some distance from where it started.
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