Help Riley kick Cancer!

Help Riley kick Leukemia!

Riley is a loving, sweet and smart 9 year old boy who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on 12 September 2019 and pn 13 September 2019 after investigations on his abnormal blood results he was diganosed with ALL Leukemia.

From being a very good energetic sports player, always willing to help with any physical activity to literally overnight being so ill and weak.

He was in his third term of Grade 2 when we found out the terrible news. Riley has had many obstacles he has overcome in his 9 years of life.

Riley was Born a fighter, he was a mere 24 weeks old when he decided to make his way into this world, born at Sunninghill hospital on the 7 April 2010 at 11:30am weighing a tiny 1.1kgs.

He struggled through the first 24hrs on life support and was very weak. His lungs being very under developed and still full of fluids. But being in the most amazing medical facility he received the best care and with therapy and a brilliant team of doctors he was home by day 33 weighing 2.2kgs.

His therapy continued and he received a course of injections for babies born under 2kgs.

Besides his early entrance and fighting spirit he was the perfect healthy intelligent child we all wish for as a mom and dad.

Winters weren't an issue and he very hardly needed to visit the doctor.

Riley has a sister whom he has grown to care for very much, always helping and coaching and rooting for.

In 2012 Rileys sister Miah was diagnosed with a very rare disease called

Systemic scleroderma, or systemic sclerosis, is an autoimmune rheumatic disease characterised by excessive production and accumulation of collagen, called fibrosis, in the skin and internal organs and by injuries to small arteries.

Miah began her route of treatment with chemotherapy and finally after many trips to the emergency and nights in hospital she was finally in remission in February of 2017.

Riley sat holding her hand through it all never moaning or nagging, he infact was a huge help when it came to having blood tests and administering her plasma infusions as he distracted her and often made her smile and laugh.

Riley has been an Insperation to so many and he now needs the support he deserves in return for all of his support given to his sister and family.

After Rileys diagnosis we all felt very confused so many questions with no right answers.

He was admitted into the donald gordon hospital on Friday the 13th September to start with his induction phase of chemo what we thought was the hardest part.

33 days in hospital and cocktails of chemo as well as blood tests, having a port inserted for his chemo and bloods, blood transfusions and every 14 days he went into theatre for bone marrow testing and lumber punctures with chemo being inserted into his spine to treat his brain from the spreading of the cancer.

Eventually the day arrived and we were discharged. I left the hospital scared beyond, the responsibilities were now mine alone...

Pretty much like going him home from neo natal at sunninghill hospital after his birth.

Having to make one of the biggest life changers, not only is he type1 diabetic and on insulin and needed to be pricked and tested for sugar levels every hour to also being on a Neutropenic diet & Diabetic diet

However these diets clash as he is limited to what he can eat for diabetes but needs for his health in the cancer diet.

His medications that needed to be given at exact times, temperature to be checked on a regular basis.

Everything has to be kept germ free and sterilized. Water bottles soaked in Miltons solution and mouth hygiene to be done every 2 to 3 hrs so that he doesn't get sores from all the medications.

After the induction phase we moved onto stage 2:

This consisted of daily trips to the oncologist where he would sit for the first week in a chair sometimes for upto 6hrs recieving his IV Chemo, and then a break on weekends where he often slept and if he wasn't sleeping had a bucket he was hugging feeling very sick.

Phase 2 lasted 4 week's where he was then introduced to phase 3...

We thought the Induction was hard but it wasn't it was the easiest, he started his 3rd phase in hospital and suddenly had spiking temperatures and extreme pain and nausea, he was supposed to be in hospital for 2 nights which turned into 5 nights, and then had a week break and then he was again admitted for his 4th bone marrow and lumber and start of his next new cocktail of chemos (methotrexate IV) the biggest banana neon yellow bag of chemo, poor child... this was where he hit the hardest time, physically & emotionally. As a mother I sat and had to watch my Son suffer and become the weakest I thought he was going to give up, and so did he... yet with the help of all our pillars of strength around us he said he would keep trying to fight.

Riley goes back in for his continuation of phase 3 on the 7th of January 2020 starting with IV fluids on day 1 and theatre where he has Bone Marrow testing, Lumber Puncture and Chemo into his spine. As well as the second BIG banana bag of methotrexate over a 24hr period and then every 6 hrs thereafter the antidote process to help him metabolize the methotrexate faster than the last one as his body metabolises slower than the normal child recieving this treatment.

He will be in hospital for approx 9 days this time around.

He has fought so hard thus far and still has a lot of fight in him. But we need your help!

Please help Riley beat this!

Any donations will be much appreciated as well as sharing his story so that we can help him in becoming a survivor of Kicking Cancer in its Butt!!!

Medical links for reference to above mentioned:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_scleroder...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_lymphoblasti...

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/typ...

For further sharing and to follow the journey with us please like our Facebook page called

Riley Kicking Cancer

Thank you for taking the time to read about our journey. If you are in a similar boat as us I would love to hear from you and offer any advise or emotional support I can.

@rikeykickingcancer on Facebook