THE GEORGE YEOMANS FOUNDATION IS NO LONGER ACTIVE

Ronnie Corbett tribute..

George’s Foundation and diary were originally set up when George was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, for the second time in May 2005. There were no treatments available in the UK, at that time, for relapsed Neuroblastoma. We needed to set up a diary for two reasons.
Firstly, we had to raise funds to take George to New York for life saving treatment. We would have to pay for his treatment. We set up the Foundation and Diary before we left the UK, which we hoped would help us make people aware of George’s situation and help us raise the much needed funds for his treatment.
Secondly, this happened back in 2005 when there was no social media. We wanted to keep family and friends updated on George while we were in New York. Having a diary on his website would keep everyone informed of his treatment & progress.
Our trip to New York was made a little easier as George’s consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) knew the consultant he would be under at Memorial Sloane Kettering.
GOSH were always so understanding and supportive in George’s treatment here and when we returned from New York for further treatment at both GOSH & University College Hospital London (UCLH).

George’s Story

George was always a hungry baby; even when he was tiny he loved his food. He only ever got sick once when he was a

George’s Story

George was always a hungry baby; even when he was tiny he loved his food. He only ever got sick once when he was a baby. He was always healthy, happy and looking for fun. When he started school, he loved it. He loves to meet people, he is a people person. He went to Drama, swimming, karate and football. He loves to sing, dance and make us laugh

February 2005 George went to bed as normal. Woke up with severe stomach pains and vomiting. Rang the NHS Help Line. They advised us to take him to Hertford North A&E. Saw our own GP there. He checked George and said that it was a stomach bug/virus.

Feb - April George complained of stomach pain but the pain never lasted long and had no pattern. Started to note weight loss. Went to our GP on more than one occasion but problem persisted. Eventually asked GP to be referred to hospital as George had lost a lot of weight (he always loved his food and was quite “chunky”).

May Got our appointment through from the local. Was due in several weeks.

End of May One weekend George was very poorly. Completely off his food, no energy and getting sick. Took him to our local A&E. They told us that he looked anaemic. They took a stomach X-ray and found nothing on it. I rang the local on the Monday to try and get an earlier appointment and they brought it forward to the following Friday.

We were met by a doctor who asked us several questions. He was of the opinion that George maybe suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. We were extremely upset at this news. George was then seen by a consultant who informed us that they would have to do some tests.

On the Friday George had to have an ultrasound. He also had his first CT scan. He had his first canula fitted (this gave him the fear of needles that he still has today). It was terrible to have to put him through this. He was screaming and shouting for us to help him. What could we do? The hospital staff had to do their job. The ultrasound results came back, we think it was the next day. It appeared ok, but his spleen was enlarged. They informed us that we had to be referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), as they were not sure what was wrong with George.

We got our appointment within days and went to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). We remember getting in the lift and pressing number 6 and looking at what was written next to the number six on the wall, "Foreign Diseases, Oncology". This meant nothing to us.

George had an ultrasound on his stomach (or jelly belly as we like to call it). When we came out of the ultrasound his Granny and Grandad were waiting for us. We were a bit surprised to see them, but thought nothing of it (they had obviously come to make sure that we were all ok). We were met straight away by a doctor who took us back up to the ward.

As soon as we got back to the ward we were called into an office. George waited outside with his Granny, while his Daddy, Mummy and Grandad went into a Doctors office. We were asked several questions. We were so nervous that we can’t remember everything they asked. One question I remember was had we been to any foreign places recently? Yes we said we had all gone away to Tunisa in May, George must have picked up some sort of bug there. She then continued to explain that George had a growth in his stomach and they there were 95% certain that it was a tumour. Cancer. Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) were also sure that it was neuroblastoma.

We could never put down into words how that moment felt, as we were numb. We were having to deal with the worst possible thing ever. There was George’s Daddy, Mummy and Grandad, the most reliable people in the world to him and what could we do to help him? We had to take all the information in, deal with it and come out of that room smiling, so that George wouldn’t know how seriously ill he was. We don’t know how we got through that half hour or was it an hour? We will never know how long we were in that room for. We then had to leave that room, smiling, acting as if we did not have a care in the world, when in fact our whole world was collapsing around us.

George was having a great time in the play area, painting, drawing and colouring in. We came out of the office all normal. As his Granny had not been in the meeting we had to tell her what had happened. That was so heart breaking. How can you break that news to anyone let alone someone’s grandparent. We let George continue playing in the play area as we informed other members of our family. Not only did we have to deal with the news ourselves, we had to let other members of George’s family know.

George’s dad is an only child, he is our only child , therefore George is an only grandchild. George’s dad had to inform his own mum and dad that George was seriously ill. We can still picture that moment, it will always bee in our minds. It was an extremely tough call for him to make and an even tougher phone call to receive. We informed all the family members what had happened. It was so difficult to let everyone know that loved George so much what was happening. We left Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) and George wanted to go to Covent Garden, to the Disney Store. We walked there trying to be as normal as we could. George went in the Disney Store and bought whatever he wanted. Then he went on the merry-go-round with his Granny. We all smiled and waved as he went by us. How we did that we will never know.

We were informed at the meeting that George would have to have a Hickman Line fitted. (We then had to explain this to George - he was completely freaked out- who wouldn’t be?). We had to take George down to surgery to have something fitted to him that he really didn’t want. He then had to be given anaesthetic. He put up such a fight. Thinking of lots of questions to ask everyone in the room, so that it would delay what was really happening... In the end they managed to get him to lie still and inject, but he wasn’t happy, he was screaming and shouting and then, just like that, he fell asleep. It was horrible to watch your child so distressed and then just give up, through no choice of his own. We then had to leave George in a room full of strangers doing something to him that we really didn’t understand. When he eventually came round we were so pleased to see him. He was not pleased to see us, he held us accountable for what had happened to him. This hurt us badly but had to make light of the situation.

After George had his hickman line he headed straight for chemo. This was an unknown subject to us, we didn’t know how he would react to it all. Like a true trooper he just adapted to it. It was his parents that found it hard. We were so worried about how it would effect him. We had to explain to him, with the help of a Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) play specialist, that he would loose his hair. The day that we told him that he would loose his hair his cousins came to visit him. George wanted to go to the toilet when they were there. So he pulled the curtain around the bed and went on the bed pan. As he was sitting there, connected to the chemo, having a poo, in the room with everyone there he said “And after all this I am going to have no hair”. We do not know whether he was trying to make light of it or whether he thought the whole thing funny and strange, we will never know. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

After the first course of chemo Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) told us what to expect from George and what to do in certain situations. They are always so good at explaining to you what will happen and what to expect. Whenever we stayed there (which was often) we always felt so safe and secure . In fact, when we left to go home we wanted to say “please can we stay until the next lot of chemo is due” as we felt so lost without them at home . It was like a home from home and every member of staff was so kind and caring to both George and us.

Test result days are always very bad days for parents. You always want to hear that it is good news, but the odds are always against you so, you always expect bad news. All of George’s results came back and we were taken into a room and told the worst thing that a parent can ever imagine. Let’s be honest, no parent ever imagines that what is happening to us will never happen to them. You just have to get on with it and be strong for your child.

Georges’ first lot of chemo was 2 to 3 days at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) then 7 days at home. Our time at home was never guaranteed. This was due to having to go to our local hospital for blood or platelets. If George got a temperature we would have to stay in the local hospital so he could have antibiotics via his Hickman line. These stays in the local could be up to 5 days at a time. We also had the Community Team coming round on a regular basis to take bloods and to change his hickman line dressing. This procedure George absolutely hated. It should have only taken 5-10 minutes, but George would get very upset as it hurt him. It could take up to an hour for this to be done. He would often scream, shout and cry at us. We felt so helpless, as it had to be changed. George would often tell us that he hated us when he was having that done. He would insist on one of us (usually his mum) to leave the room and he would promise to do it then. He would be in the front room crying because of what was being done (his mum/dad would be in the kitchen crying too).

The next stage of treatment was GCSF injections. This was to boost George’s blood counts for the stem cell harvest. The injection was done everyday for about 9 days. Then George was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for his vascath (a tube was fitted into his groin so that his stem cells could be removed) to be inserted under surgery. He did not enjoy having this done at all. He hated the thought of having the vascath fitted and also hated having the injections. He had the stem cell harvest over a couple of days. This was done by connecting the vascath to a machine and removing his stem cells. When he had to have the vascath removed he ran into the bathroom and held onto the bath rail. We could not get him to let go. In the end two nurses had to assist us. Eventually they managed to remove the vascath. Yet again George was so distraught. It was so hard for him to understand that all of this was being done to help him. He was going through so much and none of it was pleasant.

More tests, that are not nice for George. We thought, he's done the tests so now we have to hear the results. They are all going ok - lets move to the next stage quickly before anything changes!

The next stage of treatment was the operation to remove the tumour. The day before the surgery we met with the surgeon who was to perform the operation. We were informed that there was a 2% chance that George may not survive the operation. This hit us hard. It had never entered our mind that there was that risk. The surgeon kept on telling us that they have to inform parents of this and that we should not worry. Easier said than done. We now realise that whenever you have an operation there is always a certain risk involved but when it is your son, having such major surgery, you are not thinking rationally. George went down first thing in the morning. After he had his pre-med he was acting like he was a bit drunk. We walked with him while he was being wheeled down to theatre. When asked what his name was he said Jack (he was messing around) Just before we left him he started to sing the song “Sandra Dee” from the film Grease. All of the surgery team were laughing at him. We kissed him good-bye, trying to hide our tears, as we did not want to worry him. At some stage during the operation we were called in to see one of the consultants. We obviously were expecting to be told the worse. We were informed that the tumour had attached itself to one of George’s kidneys. They had been trying to “shave off” the tumour around the kidney but there might be a chance that they would have to remove his kidney. We never thought that we would be so flippant about one of George’s kidneys. We just said “take the kidney”, he’d been down in surgery so long we just wanted him back with us. We got the final call to say that surgery had finished. On the way to get George we bumped into his surgeon. He informed us that it had been 95% successful. We both thanked him and both kissed him, we were so happy that George was OK. The operation had taken 11 hours. George was very unwell for a couple of weeks after surgery. The staff on the surgical ward were brilliant. They took care of George and also us.

George had yet more tests. The disease was still in his bone marrow. He would have to have more chemo than we had thought. That was not good, but if it did the job then it would be well worth it.

George’s next lot of chemo was to consist of 4 courses. The chemo was to be administered over 1 week and then 3 weeks off. We had to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for an hour's chemo for 4 days, then be admitted to the ward for 2 nights. When at home George would get a high temperature and we would have to spend approx 5 days at our local hospital.

George then had to have stem cell removal again, as the previous one may have been diseased. This was not a happy time, as George hated everything about the stem cell removal.

In February George was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for his high level chemo. This was to be a very hard time for him. We were admitted on Valentine's Day. His chemo started the next day. It was to be oral chemo. We were told that this would be a very difficult time as George would become very poorly and go off his food completely. To make matters worse we were told that he could get a very bad side effect that could affect his liver. This could be life threatening (although no child had been lost through this, there was always a chance). We were expecting to be away from home for approximately 7 weeks. The chemo had to be administered orally. George had to take the chemo on a spoon and drink/eat it. During the day this was not to bad, but at night we felt so bad waking him up and feeding him something that could save him but at same time it could damage him so badly. George went off food and drink completely. He had to have a feed tube fitted. This meant a tube had to be put down his nose, that then went straight into his stomach. It was not good having to tell him this. Obviously he did not want it done. As usual he put up his usual fight. Thank God we had it fitted, because he would not have survived if he did not have his feed tube. It was the only thing that was keeping him going. He never drank anything, let alone eating. During this time George had his stem cell retrieval. This went well and was very easy for him. After approx 7 weeks George was well enough to come home. We had to be trained on the feed tube and were very nervous when we left. When we got home it felt so strange. Everything looked so unreal. We put George to bed and managed to attach him to his feed (we hoped we'd done it correctly). George had the feed tube for a couple of months. It was great to be out and about with him. When out though you do get looked at. A young boy with no hair and a tube sticking out his nose stuck to his cheek. George dealt with it brilliantly, I think it was us that felt so “not normal”.

After George’s intensive chemo we were actually looking forward to his next lot of treatment. It seemed so easy after what he had been through. It was radiotherapy. This started May time. We would have to go for approx 3 weeks. Every day to University College Hospital. The journey wasn’t too bad as we managed to miss the rush hour appointment and had to be there late morning. George use to listen to his personal stereo on the way. It was Pop Party or Mary Poppins (we took him to the show and he loved it, so obviously he wanted the CD and he got it!). The radiotherapy only took a matter of minutes. The staff there were great and looked forward to George bringing his music with him, as he could have his treatment and listen to it at the same time. It was strange for us, as during this treatment, George was in another room from us. We had rarely been apart since he was first diagnosed.

Radiotherapy went well, George was back on anti-sickness medication, but was well apart from that. We then had to got back to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for his next lot of treatment, which also looked pretty easy after all that he had been through.

On 7th August (will always remember that date as it’s our friend's birthday) George had his Hickman line removed. He decided not to tell anyone. He wanted it to be a surprise. Well more of a shock than a surprise. The removal of the Hickman line went ok. He got a temperature after having it removed. We were at home and had to go to our local hospital. They took his temperature and informed us that since he did not have his Hickman line they would have to fit a canula to take bloods. This did not go down to well with George. To him everything always seems to go wrong and this was just proof of that. He had the canula fitted, bloods taken and we eventually went home. The next day his big plan went into action. Since he had not told any member of his family that he had the Hickman line removed he said that he would meet some of them at the local swimming pool (if you have a Hickman line you can not get your upper body wet at all). When everyone arrived they could not work out what George was doing there with a towel wrapped around him. He then took the towel off and jumped into the pool. At first nobody knew what to do. Then they realised that he did not have his line in. They were so happy for him, it was such a great surprise to everyone. George was in his element. Later that day he decided to surprise more people. He was in his grandparents garden, fully clothed, sitting on the steps into their paddling pool. He pretended to mess around and fall into the pool. His aunt nearly had a heart attack and his great aunt just froze on the spot. They all thought that he had fallen into the water and still had his Hickman line. George jumped out of the pool, pulled his top up and said “where have my wiggley’s gone?" (that’s what children call the Hickman line). They all thought that they must have fallen off in the pool. He was so proud of himself that he had pulled off such a great stunt!

Oral chemo was his next lot of treatment. Although they call it oral chemo it is, apparently, more of an acid then chemo. This treatment’s only side effects were dry skin and very dry lips. George went back to school and loved it. He was able to see all his friends and be normal again. He would take his medication, then go off to school with his dry skin cream. We would meet him from school and say “did you apply your cream at break time” and he would say “yes”. We knew when he was lying because his lips were dry!

We went back to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) on Dec 8th 2006 to get George’s results. Yes yet again it was another dreaded results day. We waited in Elephant Day Care Center with George, acting normal, laughing and chatting to everyone, as if it was a normal day. Inside though, as a parent, you are just “cracking up”. You feel sick to the stomach and are sweating for no reason. We get called, George is with us all the time, and you go into that room acting normal but feeling so scared.

George’s results were fine. Thank God he was clear. We could relax. For a while.

We were told that we would not have to go back for test until March. 3 months without having to go to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH); what would we do with our time? Time just passes you by when you are being normal!

The three of us went back in March and they were happy with George’s progress. His urine sample was weak but they were happy with the results.

On the way home George’s mum got a phone call to say that she had been offered a job, did she want to take it. Of course she did, everything was fine. Life was great we were just like everyone else now. We were all so happy on the way home, It was just great (to everyone else it was just normal life)

During our time at home ,any health concerns that George had which lasted for 1 to 2 weeks we had to take George to our local hospital. We did visit our local hospital on several occasions.

George’s 9th birthday was coming up. We had decided to buy him a puppy. Several days later we noticed a bump on his head. At first we thought he must have knocked it, if there is anyone that will bang their head it will be George. After a week the bump was still there. We decided to take him to the hospital. They saw him straight away. They were not to concerned but because of George’s history and our worries they referred us to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). That was then we started to panic. Neuroblastoma is renowned for coming back in the brain.

We went to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), all the way there George was saying “I can’t believe you are bringing me here when I have just banged my head”. We saw George’s Consultant, who felt his bump and then arranged an ultra sound. Yet again, we were in Elephant Day Care waiting for results. We kind of knew what the results were going to be but we hoped that they were not going to be our worst fears.

Our Consultant informed us that George had a tumour and that she was 95% certain that it was neuroblastoma; the disease had also spread to his bones. We can not put into words what we feel. Lost. Heartbroken. Helpless. No good. We feel that we are no good to George because we can not help him. The only people that should protect him cannot help him anymore. We are his parents. We should be protecting him, but we can’t, this is beyond our control. We should be able to help him, but we can’t help him here in England. His only hope is to go to America and hopefully people will help us. We don’t want to move him away from all his friends and family here, but what choice do we have. If George stays here he will have quality of life. If we take him to America he will have a chance at life.

HOMEPAGE

THE GEORGE YEOMANS FOUNDATION

GEORGE JOSEPH YEOMANS
23.04.98 - 25.01.08


On 23rd April 1998, our only child, George Joseph Yeomans was born at Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield.

In June 2005 we were completely devastated when George was diagnosed with cancer. George did not only have cancer he had Neuroblastoma (a rare form of childhood cancer). George was only 7 years old. George had a tumor in his stomach, he also had the disease in his bone marrow, legs, bottom of his spin and bottom of his skull. To be told that your child has cancer is the worse possible thing ever. To be told that your child has Neuroblastoma is even worse. This is the worst form of cancer a child could have.

During the next 18 months, George very bravely received almost continuous rigorous treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This treatment involved several rounds of chemotherapy, 10 hours surgery, high dose chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and oral chemo.

We received George's final test results in December 2006. To our delight they were all clear. We then returned to normal life.

However, just 4 months later, our world was torn apart again as sadly, the cancer had returned. There is no treatment for recurrent Neuroblastoma in the UK. We were left with no other option but to seek treatment in the USA. The estimated cost of this treatment was to be hundreds of thousands of pounds. We had to raise the initial deposit of £200,000.00 urgently needed for this life saving treatment for George.

We had no options. If we were to stay in the UK George would have no hope. If we took him to New York he would have some hope. We left our family and friends to raise the funds for us. Our families were always so supportive and close to us. It was a tough decision to make. We were leaving so much behind, but if our trip to NYC saved George then what option did we have?

Whilst in New York George received more Chemo. The chemo did not have the effect that we had hoped for. A decision was made. George would receive the treatment that we had traveled there for. This treatment was called 3F8. It works best with minimal disease. George did not have minimal disease, at this time, but we were willing to try anything to save our much loved son's life.

George received the 3F8 treatment for two weeks. After this treatment there was yet more tests. The final results were that the treatment had not been successful. The disease had spread. It was in his bone marrow, arms, legs and spine.

The only options available w as a palliative treatment called MIBG. If this treatment had some effect on the disease then George could maybe have the 3F8 treatment again. George could receive this treatment in both NYC or England. We truly thought that this treatment would help George fight the disease, as it was a combination of radiotherapy and chemo. We made the decision to take George home. This was for two reasons. Firstly, he could have the treatment in the UK with all his family around him. Secondly, the cost to have the treatment in NYC would be extremely large. We flew home in September 2007 in the hope that the MIBG treatment would have some effect on the disease. We had planned to return to NYC, if the treatment worked.

Unfortunately, yet again, the treatment did not help George. We were given the results just before Christmas. There was no hope left for George. We were told that we would have to make the most of our time with him.

George was able to enjoy Christmas, as best he could. George deteriorated over a few weeks. One minute he was George. The next minute he just slept all the time. Words could never express how hard those last few weeks were. We knew we had George with us, but to be honest, he was not himself. No child should have to go through the battle and pain that George had. No family should every have to hear the word Neuroblastoma.

On 25th January 2008 George died at the age of 9. Neuroblastoma had taken yet another young life.

We miss him every minute of every day. Our lives are so empty without him. George has missed out on so much of his childhood. He will also miss out on being a teenager and growing into a man.

We truly dread to think of other families that have to go through what both George and we have. If there is anything that we can do for these families then we must do it.

All remaining funds, that have been raised by The George Yeomans Appeal will help other children that want to go to America for treatment. These funds will help other children fight this terrible disease.

Martin and Helena xx

Many thanks to Great Ormond Street Hospital, UCLH, Chase Farm, Memorial Slone Kettering New York, Ronald McDonald House New York and The 2 Simple Trust for all their help and support throughout George's illness. We have met so many kind nurses, doctors and people. Everyone has tried to do the best they can for George , You have all been a tower of strength to us,we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Any funds raised left unused for a particular appeal will go to any of the remaining appeals on this site to help other children suffering with Neuroblastoma who are in urgent need of treatment.

DIARY 1

George's Updates Archive

​

George Yeomans

George's Updates Archive

Monday 14th May 2007 George has had his hickman line fitted, in order for him to have chemotherapy at Great Ormond Street. This will last for 5 days. He is also having radiotherapy on the tumour in his head and also on his legs. The chemo and the radiotherapy will finish by Tuesday of next week.

George's parents were advised that he had to have some treatment in the UK before he goes to America to supress the cancer, as when he does arrive at the hospital in America, they will have to do their own tests on George. He could be having tests for up to two weeks, this is why he needed urgent treatment before he leaves the UK.

After he has finished the course of radiotherapy and chemo, George will then have to have GCSF injections to boost his blood count in order for him to be well enough to fly to the States. Hopefully we can raise as much money as possible to get him over there.

Monday 21th May 2007 George has been receiving Radiotherapy & Chemotherapy over the last 7 days. Everyday we had to travel to University College Hospital for Radiotherapy, where George received treatment to his head. George would then go into another room and receive treatment to his leg/hip. George was brilliant throughout, and stayed still the whole time. Everyone at UCLH were so good to us.

We then went to Great Ormond Street (GOSH) were George received Chemo. George has always liked going to GOSH as he knows so many of the staff there and they are always so nice to him, so he never complained about having to go there again.

George has been very tired all week. He has been off his food since the treatment started, and he has been sick a lot. We had forgotten, or maybe tried to block from our minds how ill he gets when he is having treatment.

George has also been receiving his GCFS injections to boost his blood counts. At present, George's blood count is high enough to stop his injections, but, George's blood count may still fall once again. The GCFS injections may continue, this will depend on his next blood test on Wednesday and Friday this week. If the blood count is too low there is also a possibilty George may need blood or platlet transfusions.

Sunday 27th May 2007 George and his parents flew out to New York on Sunday. His platelets and bloods were high enough for him to be able to travel, so this was a prime opportunity for him to go. The Trust negotiated part of the payment for George to be able to get him seen at the Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital as time was not on our side, if it got left any later, then George's blood count would have gone down, therefore, he would be unable to fly due to catching any infections on the flight. We couldn't afford for him to go much longer without further treatment.

George is due to start treatment, but funds are still urgently needed to sustain the treatment – we need everyone’s help.

On Friday (1 June) we were informed that as his platelet were still low George would not be able to start chemo on Monday. Hopefully he will be able to start mid week. George's bump on his head is getting bigger. He is conscious of it himself and has said that it is ugly. The Doctor here wants to give radiotherapy to this area as soon as possible. The bump on George's head is now bald, due to the radiotherapy he received in England and also the chemo. The rest of his hair is also falling out due to all of the above. We all knew that this would happen, but it still doesn't make it any easier. Today we bought a lovely NY Baseball cap, we know that due to George's hair loss and the very hot weather over here that he will get plenty of use out of it.

We met with the Doctor at the Hospital on Tuesday (29 May) and he advised us that they would start chemo on George as soon as possible. The course of chemo would be 5 days of treatment, then 2 weeks off. We were informed that on the 2 weeks off we would probably be in hospital for a week due to high temperature. Hopefully, George would start treatment next Monday (4 June). George would have to have a Heart Echo, which he had done that day. The other test was a Bone Marrow test (which he hates), this was to be done on Wednesday.

We arrived for the bone marrow test and George was really calm, considering how much he hates this test. We then had to walk him into a room where he would be given anesthetic. George was so brave, he really wanted to be good as he was in a new hospital. He was great. He let them put him to sleep, knowing what they would be doing to him and how it would effect him after. He woke up quite quickly and as he had back pain was given a wheelchair to be taken home in. We went back to the hospital several times to have blood taken.

Tuesday 5th June 2007 We arrived in New York quite late Sunday evening (27 May). It all seems so strange to us and so far from home. We moved into Ronald McDonald House. This was to be our home for sometime.

Monday 11th June 2007 We have spent everyday at the hospital this week. George had to have blood tests everyday to make sure that his platelets were coming up. Which they did, slowly but surely. George also had to have his radiotherapy planning. This involved making sure that they radiate the correct area everyday. He had to have a mask of his head made, which he thought was pretty funny.

Unfortunately on Wednesday we were called into an office, at the hospital. We were informed that a child, that had been in the play area the same time as George, had got Shingles. They advised us that George would have to have medication. This medication would be given to try and soften the blow, if he caught shingles. This medication would have to be given via his hickman line over 4 hours. We were then informed that from 14th June until 2nd July George would have to be treated at the hospital in Isolation. This is purely to prevent other children from getting shingles. We were then informed that we would have to move out of our accommodation, for this period of time. There are several children staying at our accommodation who are receiving chemo and other treatments. We now had the worry that George may get shingles and also the worry of having to move to another place. The Hospital Social Worker is helping us to find alternative accommodation. George had the medication on Thursday. Within 10 minutes of receiving the treatment George got sick. He then felt very sleepy and slept for most of the 4 hours. All of this is happening because George MAY get shingles.

The next day we went to the hospital for a blood test and were delighted when they informed us that George's platelets were nice and high and that they would go ahead with Chemo on Monday.When we got home George got sick, after eating a rather large tomato,we thought nothing of this at the time.

Later on, at approx 5pm that day, George was not well at all. He kept getting sick, complained of a headache and was just lying on the bed. We took his temperature and it risen to 38.4 (which is high) within an hour. We rang the Urgent Care number and they advised us to take him straight to the hospital. When we were getting ready to leave George said that he couldn't walk. We put him straight in a wheelchair and rushed him to the Urgent Care.

Once there they took his temperature, blood pressure and pulse. We were seen by a lovely Doctor. We were told that it may be an infection and they took bloods to check for this (the results take 48 hours). The Doctor kept coming in a checking on George, who was still feeling very poorly. We were told that the side effects from the medicine he had the day before were all the symptoms George was showing, but these symptoms usually happen 24 hours after the medication. George had the medication approx 26 to 27 hours previously. A while later we were then called outside of George's room and were informed that they were worried that the Tumor may have caused a blood clot on the brain or even worse that the disease may have now progressed to his brain. We were totally shocked and devastated. They advised to have a CT Scan. We were then introduced to a Neuro Surgeon. He informed us that we should not worry and that he felt that things would be ok. He also said that they had to make sure that the worse possible situation was not happening. We then had to go back into George's room and be happy and normal. If he knew we were worried then he would worry and we could not let that happen.

George had the CT Scan. The results came back and his tumour had got bigger since the last CT Scan. The hospital wanted George to have an MRI Scan. It was now 11.30pm and we took George to have the Scan. He had to stay still the whole time. The scan took 45 minutes to do. George got really upset half way through the scan. It is quite a scary machine, very noisy and your head is in a thing that looks a bit like a cage. He calmed down and the scan continued.

The Doctor came into the room later on to give us the results. We followed her out into the hallway. She told us that the scan had come back and that it was all ok. We were both so relieved. They wanted to keep George in for observation over night, but we could go home in the morning. We are still not sure what was wrong with George that night. Maybe he had just got a normal infection, or an infection in his line or it may have been a reaction to the medication. He is fine now and that is all that matters. As long as he is well enough to start chemo then we are all happy.

Now all we need to do is find out where we are staying over the next 19 days. We will hopefully find out in the morning.

George has already packed his bag for spending the whole day at the hospital. He had put CD's, Gameboy Games and some books in his bag. He knows he is going to have chemo. He also knows that this will make him sick and feel very unwell, but he has never ever complained about it. All week he has been saying "I need to eat loads this week, because next week I will not want to eat anything". He has, therefore, been able to eat and drink whatever he likes!

George had an early night tonight to prepare himself for the long week ahead of him.

DIARY 2

George's Updates Archive

​

Monday 18th June 2007 Last Monday morning (11 June) George was starting his chemo. We had to be at the hospital for 7.30am. As we walked to the hospital we knew the next couple of weeks for George would be difficult, but we had to keep him positive. We had taken George in his wheelchair, as we knew that he would not be able to walk home later that day. We tried to make it an enjoyable trip by pushing him fast, spinning him round and pretending to run into things! This to our delight made him laugh.

The first chemo was given via his hickman line. This took a matter of minutes. The second chemo was given via the hickman line and lasted about an hour. Shortly after this chemo started George got severe stomach cramps. He was crying from the pain. He was given medication to help overcome the pain. The third chemo was administered the same way, but would take approx 6 hours. We were informed that we would have to take a “back pack of fluids home with us”. The “back pack” contained I.V. fluids (that is connected to George’s hickman line). This was to ensure that George would be receiving enough fluids through the night. The chemo that had taken 6 hours could damage his bladder. Therefore you have to ensure that the bladder is getting flushed enough. We were also advised to wake him every 2 hours (through the night) to make sure that he went to the toilet. We left the hospital at approx 7pm. George was exhausted by the time we got back to Ronald McDonald house. George asked to go to bed as soon as we got in (that is something that George never asks for).

Tuesday was exactly the same as Monday. To prevent George from getting stomach cramps his nurse gave him the medicine for the pain before the chemo was given, but George still got stomach cramps. George is now aware that this chemo gives him pain. He has started to worry about it all. We keep on telling him that as long as the chemo makes him better then he has to have it . We try to comfort him, make time go fast and also make things as pleasant as possible. George was starting to get sick from the chemo and sleeping a great deal. He also didn’t want to drink or eat. After the long day of chemo we had an appointment at Radiotherapy. George didn’t want to put his mask on. He started to get very upset. In the end we managed to talk him round. He was so brave. He stayed really still while they were taking pictures. We were then informed that there was a query with the markings on the mask and that he would maybe have to have another mask done.

Wednesday was a shorter visit to the hospital. George only needed chemo that takes an hour. Although the treatment only takes an hour you are always at the hospital for longer. As before treatment is administered observations of George have to be carried out and medicines have to be prescribed. George got stomach cramps again and got very upset. After chemo we headed for radiotherapy. They had managed to change the markings on George’s mask. We were so happy to hear the news. George had his treatment and as usual was brilliant.

Thursday morning, we had to move out of Ronald McDonald House. We also had to be at the hospital for chemo and radiotherapy. The chemo was again over an hour. We could not go to the Paediatric Ward as George now has to be treated in Isolation. As George had not been eating or drinking, we were told that we would have to take a “back pack” home with us. After chemo we went to radiotherapy.

After all of George’s appointments we moved to our new accommodation. We could only book into this accommodation for 2 nights (it is very busy in New York this time of year). We didn’t bother to unpack, as we would soon be on the move. George adapted well to the new accommodation, but he still says that he will miss Ronald McDonald House. He will miss the company of all the children staying there. George is still being sick. He is on so much medication. He has his anti-sick medications, that we can only give to him every 6 - 8 hours. We have to try and judge the best times to give these to him. He also has a certain medication to stop him from getting a serious virus. He has his usual hay fever tablets and eye drops. He has one that he has to use like mouthwash and then swallow. This is to prevent sores to his mouth and throat. We have also been told that he will get severe diarrhoea, so we now have that medication in the medicine bag, ready for use.

On Friday George received the same treatment as the previous day. He still got stomach cramps, which upset him and us. He is not himself at all. No energy and has no interest in anything (which is very unlike him). We took him straight back to our room where he fell asleep. We feel that at moments like this we miss the real George, full of energy, making us laugh and just being silly.

Saturday morning, we were on the move again. George in his wheelchair, with a sick bowel on his lap and his big toy dog Judy. Us with bags and cases. We must have looked very strange to the normal person! We moved into yet another new home. We stayed in all weekend. George was too unwell to go out. He just lay in bed all weekend. We watched lots of telly. George didn’t even want to go on the computer, which again is very unlike him. Even when we were contacted by relatives he didn’t really want to talk to them. Which must be upsetting for them and difficult for George. It was a very difficult weekend, as it was so hard to see George feeling so unwell. George did ask why he was the boy that had to get ill and that it wasn’t fair. We didn’t really know how to answer that question. We said that things like this just happen. That it was nobodies fault. We told George that the main thing was that we were in New York to get the best medicine in the world . We also told George that everything would be ok, as long as the three of us were together then we would all be fine.

Monday 18th June 2007 We started the week with great anxiety knowing that George would need a blood and platelet transfusions. We were also aware that at some stage he would develop a high temperature.

On Monday we headed off to Urgent Care for George to have a blood test. We were informed that he would need both HB (red cells) and platelets. George would have to start having the GCSF injections (to help boost certain counts). George had an insaflon fitted to his arm. This is a small plastic device that is inserted into his arm. This is then left in his arm, for one week. We then have to inject the GCSF into this device. George then had to go to Radiotherapy. He still has no energy or interest in anything. He is off his food and does not want to drink.

Tuesday and George is still not eating or drinking. George went to have radiotherapy. Since George is in isolation, he now has to wear a mask, gown and gloves when he goes into the hospital. George had his radiotherapy and as always he was really good. He stayed still throughout, but his big cuddly doggy Judy, who was lying on him, had a great time, she danced to the music that was playing. George didn’t even realise that he was moving her in time to the music. We could see it all on the monitors. To encourage George to eat we told him he could have whatever he wanted. He said he wanted “Dairy Lea Lunchables”. We were not sure if we could get them in New York, but would try our best. After walking the streets for a while we came across something that was similar to Lunchables. George tried them and said that he didn’t like the cheese and that the ham was too thick. He did manage to eat one of the biscuits though!

Wednesday came around so quickly. George was low on potassium. We were advised to get George to eat whatever we could that had potassium in. Easier said then done, since he does not want to eat. We were informed that there were lots of sports drinks that had potassium in them. We went out and bought several drinks and bananas, as they are high in potassium. We managed to get George to drink one of the drinks and a banana. Shortly after he got very sick. They decided to put George back on IV fluids. George then had his radiotherapy. We had to carry him the short distance, as he was so unwell. Just before they put the mask on, George said he felt sick. They waited a while until he felt better and then gave him his radiotherapy. We had to carry George home, he didn’t want to go in the wheelchair because he felt so sick. When we got home we decided to monitor his temperature. His temperature hit 38. We rang Urgent Care and they told us that we had to bring him in straightaway.

Thursday morning and we were still in Urgent Care. Since George is in Isolation there were no rooms available for him. Through the night George received both HB (blood) and platelet transfusion. His temperature was going up and down all the time. We put him to bed, but he just wanted to be cuddled, as he was so cold. At 1.30am his temp had risen to 38.9. By 4am the bed was wet with sweat. The nurse gave him something to help stop his temp raising even higher.

Friday morning. George now has low blood pressure and a high temperature. The hospital think that his low blood pressure maybe because he sleeps on his side all night and that he is not eating or drinking.

The weekend was much the same as the week . George has been on two IV antibiotics and fluids all week. His temperature is still up and down and he still has low blood pressure. On Sunday George needed transfusions of HB and platelets. In himself he seems to be ok. He can be happy and chatty one minute and then tired the next. George did manage to do some drawings Sunday night. They were of “flags of the world” (his cousin Jack loves to draw maps and flags, so we just kept calling George ‘Jack’, which he thought was very funny).

DIARY 3

George's Updates Archive

​

Monday 25th June 2007 George’s blood pressure is still slightly low. He had radiotherapy and that went well. His temperature was fine until later and then it went up. George sounded a bit wheezy. We called the nurse in, she checked George and then a Doctor was called. This was when we started to panic. After talking to the Doctor we realised that George had been sat in his wheelchair next to some very strong smelly flowers earlier. He gets hay fever so that must be why he is wheezing. The nurse gave George a nebulizer and it cleared his wheezing.

Tuesday

George started a new antibiotic. Shortly after receiving this, we noticed that his whole head was becoming red. At first we thought it must have been from where he way lying on his pillow, but his head got redder and redder. You could see a line across his neck where his head was red and his neck was normal. We called the nurse in. She then called a Doctor. We were informed that George had “red mans syndrome”. This is a side effect from the new antibiotic. George had radiotherapy, a bit later then planned, due to his red head. He is still not eating, which can be very frustrating at times, as we do not want him to survive on fluids alone. The lump on George’s head is getting redder by the day, due to radiotherapy, but this must be a good sign, the radiotherapy must be working. George’s blood counts are not improving and now we are getting worried that they will not be high enough for the next lot of chemo. We are never happy, when his blood counts are low, it shows that the chemo is doing it’s job, but then we worry that they will not pick up enough for the next lot of chemo. George went to bed, shortly after lying him down he became wheezy. They gave him the nebulizer once again. One of the nurses told us that he could have congestion on his chest, as he is not moving around a lot. So from tomorrow we will get George up and either get him to dance or exercise around the room!

Wednesday

We went, as usual, to radiotherapy. When we got back we were told that George had to go for a chest x-ray. Yet again we started to worry. The results came back and they were all okay. Later that night George was started on yet another antibiotic. He had only been connected to it for a few minutes and he said he couldn’t breath. He was really panicking, he started to cry, shouting “I can’t breath”, then he started to heave and got sick a lot. The nurse stopped the medication immediately and the doctor was called. They were not sure why this had happened, maybe George just had a bad reaction to the antibiotic. It was a reaction that George would never forget. He was so scared. We felt helpless watching all this happening. George eventually calmed down and went to sleep. Later that night he got another very high temperature.

Thursday

This was a much calmer day. George had his radiotherapy. He still had a high temperature and low blood pressure. George managed to write some postcards and was in good spirits. He is getting to know all his nurses now and likes to chat to them. His blood counts have not improved, but we feel sure that they will. Yet again, when George lay down to go to sleep he was wheezy, he was given a nebulizer, it cleared his chest. Someone told us that the wheezing on the chest could be a sign of pneumonia. This really made us worry, so no matter what happens tomorrow George will have to get up and move around that room.

Friday

George’s blood counts are still very low. Due to the chemo he has just had and all the other chemo he has received over the last two years, his bone marrow is probably finding it very difficult to recover. Today he received HB and platelet transfusion. He started wheezing again when we put him to bed. Again he was given an nebulizer and this cleared his chest.

Saturday

George slept really well. He has not had a temperature for quite a while (fingers crossed!) His Doctor came to see him. He is a lovely man and George really likes him. He examined George and was happy with his progress. He then went onto say that they might have to do surgery on George’s lump. As he said this we could feel George’s fear. We looked at George and he had tears in his eyes. We quickly signalled to George’s Doctor not to mention anymore about surgery and he obliged as he was obviously concerned about Georges feelings on this matter. When the Doctor left George got really upset. The surgery George had previously was major and none of us will ever forget that. It was hard for us watching George go through it, it must have been so much harder for George, as he was the one that had to go through it. We kept telling George that it was a ‘might’. It was not definitely happening. Why get upset over a ‘might’? When it ‘might’ not even happen. We switched the TV, computer and Gameboy on, in the hope that it would distract George and it did. We hope that he is no longer worried about the surgery, we feel sure that if he is, he will let us know.

Sunday

George has not had a high temperature for a few days. The Doctors came round in the morning and said that we should be able to go home tomorrow (Monday). Shortly after that George got a temperature again and all we can do is hope George will be well enough to be discharged in the next few days.

Monday 2 July We were woken up quite early and were told that George would have to have a throat swap. The doctors wanted to find out why he kept getting the high temperature. They thought that this maybe due to a slight cough or throat infection. We were not worried about this small test as George has had them before, they just take a small sample from the back of your throat. Unfortunately, the test they wanted to give George was different. He had to have a tube put up each nostril, that then went quite deep into his throat. When he heard this he got so angry and upset. We eventually calmed him down and they did the test . We went to radiotherapy. Later on we were told that we could go home. George would have to wear a mask, while at the hospital and in Ronald McDonald House. He would not be allowed back onto the Paediatric Ward until the results of the test. We would have to go to Urgent Care once again for his appointments. Just before we left a Doctor came to see us to say that the Nueroblastma team wanted to see George on Tuesday. We told the Doctor that we could not go onto the Paediatric Ward, she told us that we could. We were pleased as George has more to play with fun on the Paediatric Ward. We eventually got discharged and all 3 of us moved back into Ronald McDonald House at about 8pm that night.

Tuesday 3 July George went to radiotherapy. We thought he was well enough to walk the 10 minutes to the hospital, but about half way there he got very tired. We then went to Paediatric Ward for blood test. We were informed that George’s white blood and neutrofil count had risen enough for us to stop the GCSF injections. She also informed us that the Doctors may review the next lot of chemo that George is due to have. For two reasons. One of the chemos he has received quite a few times now. The second reason is that George is due to start his next chemo on Monday. There is no way his blood counts will be up in time. We feel sure that the Doctors will come up with another type of chemo for Georges next set of treatment. We informed the nurse of George’s throat swap and asked when the results would be back. She was not aware that this test had been done. She went to check the records. When she came back she told us the results would be back on Sunday. Poor George would have to wear the mask until Sunday. She then told us that we should not be on the Paediatric Ward, due to the test being done. We felt terrible. We informed her that we had done as we were advised to do. She told us to attend Urgent Care until Monday. George is so happy to be back at Ronald McDonald House. He kept going down to Reception to see if the dogs had arrived (he knew which dogs were due to visit today and loves them both). He also likes to check the “mail box” by himself that is also in Reception.

Wednesday 4 July Independence Day. A whole day off from the Hospital! Everyone from the house were collected by NYPD and taken to a bridge, down by the river for a BBQ. After eating such lovely food we all watched the Independence Day fireworks. The NYPD are so good to give up their time and help families like us. The fireworks were amazing. George loves fireworks and really enjoyed the display. His favourite ones were the ones in the shape of a happy face.

Thursday 5 July We had to go to Urgent Care to have George’s blood test. George managed the walk to the hospital today. He looks very tired. We expected him to have platelets. We were told that he needed both HB and platelets. They were both very low. We took George to radiotherapy, while the bloods were being ordered. Once we got back to Urgent Care we were told to start George on the GCSF once again. We were also told that George had been booked in for a Scan on Saturday. This is the MIBG scan that takes approx 2 hours. George would have to go to the hospital on Friday for the MIBG injection. This injection highlights the nueroblastma cells and then the scan can pick up on them. We were both shocked that this had been done at such short notice. We were told that they had booked these appointments for someone else and that the people had cancelled, so there was an opportunity for George to have the time slot instead. We are both obviously very worried about the test, as after a test comes results. George was so tired that he fell asleep while having the transfusions (very unlike him). He woke up in time for us to leave the hospital, which was just after 7.30pm. George was full of energy when we got back to the house. He was on the internet for a couple of hours looking up Dr Who stuff. George stayed up until mid night (as he had his little nap earlier).

Friday 6 July George had to attend Urgent Care for blood tests. The results came back and his white counts are up. We are so pleased. We can now stop the GSCF. We went to radiotherapy. George then had to have his MIBG injection. In England George use to have a canula fitted and then the injection would be given through this. This procedure really stings and often makes George cry. We were delighted to hear that in the U.S. they injection into his hickman line. So this procedure for once was easy, much to the delight of George.

DIARY 4

George's Updates Archive

​

Saturday 7 July Today we had to go to the hospital for George’s appointment at Nuclear Medicines. The scan was to take 1 ½ to 2 hours. George lay still all the way through (the best boy ever as usual). We always get so nervous when George is having this scan, as we are always so worried about the results. As George has the scan you can see the picture, on screen, that the scan is producing. His head was scanned first. We could clearly see the tumour showing itself. We had been warned that the tumour would show on the MIBG scan, as the radiotherapy will continue to work for several weeks after finishing treatment. We both decided that we would not look at the screen again. We were both so scared that we might see things that we did not want to see. We read George one of his books while he had the rest of the scan. Since we have a free day, from hospital tomorrow, we are going to try and put results to the back of our minds and just enjoy our day with George.

Sunday 8 July We asked George what he wanted to do for the day. He decided he wanted to go to Time Square. He wanted to watch a film at the cinema and go to Toys R Us (one of the nurses at the hospital was kind enough to give George a Toys R Us voucher). We had a great day out. George really enjoyed the film. He always loves going to the cinema. We then went to Toys R Us and George spent the voucher within minutes. He managed to get things that he really wanted. He had his photo taken. They then added in the cast of High School Musical to this photo. They then printed it out onto a jigsaw puzzle. George thought it was the best thing ever. He asked “Who do you think is the best looking?” We feel sure that he knew what the answer would be! We are absolutely dreading taking him to the hospital in the morning. He needs to have a blood test, but our obvious concern is the dreaded results. We can only keep thinking positive thoughts, but sometimes this is so hard to do. The worry and dread are never far from our minds. We have made the most of our day off and all three of us have had a really special day.

Monday 9 July We awoke this morning feeling very nervous and scarred. George is in brilliant form and has loads of energy and chit chat. The walk to the hospital was different from usual. We were going for test results. We would have been so much happier if George was receiving treatment today. We arrived for our appointment and George had his blood taken for testing, we never got seen by the doctor as they were very busy. We had to leave and take George for his radiotherapy. You always worry when you are kept waiting, as your mind starts working over time and you begin to worry more. We arrived back and were seen by a Doctor. He informed us that the MIBG scan results were more or less the same as the MIBG scan George had at Great Ormond Street on 26 April. This could be for a couple of reasons. The most worrying is that the chemo George had just received had not done anything to fight the neuroblastoma cells. Another reason could be that maybe, since the scan at Great Ormond Street the disease had progressed and that the recent chemo may have worked. We explained that George had received chemo in England before we left. We were advised that the chemo there had been very mild and that maybe it had not had a great effect on the neuroblastoma cells. Yet again, we can not put into words how this made us feel. We really thought that this chemo would have an effect on the neuroblastoma cells. The Doctor explained that George had received so many different types of very strong chemo and still the bad cells were there. He told us that they would be discussing George’s case at the weekly meeting that the Neuroblastoma Team have every week. He also let us know that there were other options, but that he would have to check that George could receive these treatments. We came out of the meeting feeling very upset. It is so hard to keep getting up after so many knock backs. George was on the computer in the waiting room. He saw us coming out and really wanted us to see what he was doing. We managed to pick ourselves up and share with him what he was exploring on the internet. We have an appointment on Wednesday morning at the hospital. We hope that tomorrow lasts forever

Tuesday 10th July Today George only had to go to the hospital to receive his radiotherapy. He had his treatment. Tomorrow will be his last day to receive radiotherapy. He told the staff there that he would miss coming to see them everyday and having a little lie down and time to relax! They have told us all along that they think George is very sweet. They have been very kind to us. In the evening everyone at Ronald McDonald House were taken to see a special screening of Harry Potter. George was delighted as he is a big Harry Potter fan and has been talking about this new film. It was all very exciting for him, as he knew we were seeing the film before everyone else in America, but more importantly we were seeing it before everyone back at home. He had a great time and loved the film. He talked about it constantly until he fell asleep. We are seeing George’s doctor in the morning. We are so worried about what he will tell us. We knew that we would not get much sleep. It’s so hard to fall asleep when you have such a big worry on your mind. Things always seem so bad when you are trying to sleep. We are trying to stick to the expression “things will seem better in the morning”. We truly hope that they are.

Wed 11th July We headed to the hospital with such worry on our minds. George was his usual happy self (unaware of what is happening). George had a blood test. The results were quite low, he would need a platelet transfusion and he would also need to start having the GCSF again. He had his last radiotherapy treatment. We then got called in to see his Doctor. He is such a lovely man. He explained that the last lot of chemo had not achieved what they had all hoped for. We all came to the decision to let George have the treatment we came here for. It is called 3F8 antibody with Beta-Glucan. We are pleased that George will be receiving this treatment. We only wish that he would be going into this next phase of treatment clear of neuroblastoma. As George’s parents we have to do what we can to help him fight this terrible disease. That is why we brought him here. George has received so much chemo and the neuroblastoma cells are still fighting against this. If we try something new then hopefully it will work. Our main worry is that, everyday that passes us, the neuroblastoma is growing and taking over his body. We sometimes look at him and can’t understand why this is happening to such a funny, outgoing, loving and sweet boy.

Thur 12 July Today we had to take George to the hospital to have a test he really hates. The bone marrow test. George hates this test as he has to be given anaesthetic for this procedure. We think he hates it for two reasons. He hates needles and he knows that this is what they use to check his bone marrow. He also hates to loose control and that is why he does not like being put to sleep. He was doing really well. We were playing games and having a good time. Then he was called into the room. The nurses asked him to get onto the bed and he said he would not get on the bed until his doctor arrived. He was just delaying things and who could blame him. His doctor arrived and he got on the bed. He kept saying “Mummy Daddy I’m scared”. What can we do. He had to have this test. As he was given the anaesthetic we just kept saying “think of happy thoughts and you will wake up happy. Think of Tilly and everyone at home that loves you so much”. George went limp and he was asleep. We hate leaving him like that, so alone. The procedure only takes about 15 minutes, but it seems a lot longer. George woke up, he was a bit groggy but he still managed to say that he wanted McDonalds!

Friday 13 July (not a good sign) George needed to have a CT Scan today. At 6.45am we had to give George medication to protect his thyroid gland. We had an 8.30 appointment. Only one of us could go in. It was not fare that George had to choose, so we made the decision for him. He had the scan and was doing really well. He started to panic just near the end, as he thought his line was going to be pulled out, as the machine had moved it. He got really upset, but managed to continue with the test. It is so difficult seeing him getting upset with tests, when we know that they have to be done. How can you explain to your 9 year old son, that something that is not nice, are things you have to do to make you better? We got home early. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum. We were told that it was walking distance (20 minute walk). We had only been walking for about 10 minutes and knew that George could not walk all the way. It was so hot. We got a cab to the Museum. George had such a great time. He wanted to take pictures of everything that was there. We had to walk through Central Park to get home. George was feeling hot, so he took his baseball cap off. After about 5 minutes he started to cry. We asked what was wrong and he told us “All the kids are looking at me”. We told him to ignore the children. He said “Their Mums and Dads are looking at me as well”. George wanted to put his baseball cap back on. As usual we tried to make light of the situation.

Saturday 14 July It is so hot outside that we don’t want to go out. So we didn‘t. We had a lovely day, at home, in our small room, spending time together.. We watched DVD’s that were sent from home (English programmes such as Dr Who and Eastenders). George really enjoyed watching them. George also managed to speak to several people at home via the computer and he loved that. We have had a very lazy day, so tomorrow we will go out and have some fun. Who knows what will happen next week, but we have to live day to day, so let’s make the most of that.

Sunday 15 July George wanted to go to a certain shop. He had heard that this shop sold The Simpsons Action Figures. We had to get the bus, as this shop was quite a distance away. No surprise to us, but we got on the wrong bus! We eventually got there and they didn’t have what he wanted. We came across a Virgin Store and he found that they sold his beloved Harry Potter Action Figures. Needless to say he bought what he really wanted. He was so happy with his bag of goodies. We were waiting at the bus stop to come home and after a while realised that we were actually at the wrong bus stop! It was so hot all we wanted to do was get on the bus and feel the air con! When we got home George played with his new action figures and then searched the net to see if you could buy them in England and if any new figures were coming out on sale. He went to bed a happy boy. Our weekend has now finished. We have not done too much, but have had a great time together.

DIARY 5

Monday 16th July It is so great to see George back to his usual self. Eating well, a lot more energy and just being his usual silly self. Today we had a day off from the hospital. The House were doing a trip to The Little Shop of Crafts. The children were allowed to choose an item of pottery. They were then able to paint it. George chose a lovely dog, asleep in it’s basket (no surprise there, as he loves his dogs). It was then glazed. It came out looking brilliant. On the way out of the shop, George realised that you can make your own Teddy. We feel sure that we will have to go back there again. Th

Tues 17 July We went to the hospital, for a blood test. Results were okay, but are slowly dropping. George then had to have a heart echo. He does not mind having this test, as it does not involve being put to sleep or needles. We were seen by George’s Doctor. George will start the 3F8 the next day. The hospital were trying to fit George into their schedule, as they are very busy. We were advised to return to the hospital mid morning on Wednesday, if we did not hear from them in the mean time. We were not told the results from George’s test, as they were not back yet. George is really enjoying life at Ronald McDonald House. He is now back to his usual self. They have activities throughout the day. He has started to join in and is having a great time. We were just getting on the Ronald McDonald bus, to go to the ASPCA (RSPCA to us) and one of George’s nurses from Great Ormond Street appeared beside us. We were delighted to see her. We knew that she was coming to New York and she had told us that she would pop in and see us. George was really pleased to see her, but unfortunately he still wanted to go on the trip. We made arrangements to meet up the next day. George loved going to the ASPCA, he really loves animals.e dog, that George painted, now sits proudly upon the TV in our room.

Wed 18 July We got a phone call in the morning from George’s Doctor. He informed us that George would not be starting the treatment this week, as they were unable to fit him on the programme. We were very disappointed. We are fully aware of how quick this terrible disease can spread, but what can we do but hope and pray that all will be fine. We were told that the treatment will start next Wednesday instead. From Wednesday onwards George will have to have his Glucan medicine daily. He will then start the 3F8 on the following Monday. He will have the treatment for 2 weeks (Monday to Friday only). They would like to do 4 courses of this treatment. They will do tests at the end of the first course to see how it is working. Thankfully, at the house, they have started a Summer Camp. They have activities all day long for the children. We were really happy that George was mixing with all the children and having fun, but we missed him so much. He kept ringing us on the internal phone. George’s nurse from Great Ormond Street came over and spent the evening with us. It was so great to chat to someone from home. It was also nice for someone else to see what it is like staying here. George was far too busy to chat for too long to his guest, as he was having too much fun with all the other children, but he did keep on coming over to us, checking in every now and then!

Thurs 19 July We had to go to the hospital for blood tests today. On our way out of Ronald McD House we were told that they were having a Christmas dinner at 6pm. While at the hospital Georges special guest from GOSH arrived. George and ourselves really enjoyed having someone from home seeing what was going on at our new hospital. George had a blood test and his hb was 8.1. The hospital normally transfusion at 8. We were told that they thought it best that he had a transfusion, as his bloods were dropping. George got really upset, as he knew that if he had a transfusion he would miss the party. They decided to let us go home and come back in the morning for another blood test (hopefully George’s hb count may go up over night). George’s white counts were also low, so we would have to give him GCSF injections to boost this. George had a great time at the party.

Friday 20 July We went to the hospital for George’s blood test. To our surprise they were ok and have started to come up, a little. We were not seen by our Doctor, so still no news on results. We do not have to go back to the hospital until Tuesday. We returned home, where they had yet more activities for the children. George is really enjoying the company of all the other children.

Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 July Over the weekend we had a very relaxing time. It was, as usual, very hot. On Saturday there was a BBQ down by The Hudson River, which was being organised by the NY Fire Department. We were taken there in a school bus. This delighted George, as it was the same as the school bus in the cartoon programme The Simpsons. It was great to spend the afternoon by the river. There was a band and some entertainment for the children.

Monday 23rd July Woke up to a massive down pour of rain, that did not stop all day. As George said “Everything is big in America, even the rain”. We were taken to a school show in the morning, The Wizard of Oz. It was performed by children younger then George, which he found funny.

Tuesday 24 July We went to the hospital. We were, as usual, expecting George’s bloods to have gone down, but they had not. It would appear that they are slowing creeping up. Which is brilliant. We were informed that George would indeed be starting his Glucan the next day. We were also told the amount he would have to drink, 243ml. We would have to collect this from the hospital in the morning. We were once again informed that George would be in great pain from the 3F8. They prescribed George some pain killers to start taking immediately, in order to get into his system before the 3F8 does. We have not been given the results to the tests. We feel sure that they would have told us if the results had been bad. We will have to wait and see George’s Doctor.

Wednesday 25 July We woke up today, to the sound of teeth being brushed. George had got himself up and was getting ready to go down to the playroom. We could not believe it. George never gets up and gets himself ready. It just shows how much he enjoys staying here. He talked about the Ronald McDonald House trip to the Bronx Zoo that we were going on, later that day. He insisted that we stay in bed until he left. Once he had gone we got straight up. He had left us a massive note saying “Dear Mummy and Daddy, Have gone to camp (playroom). I’ll meet you in the lobby at 11.45 for trip. Don’t forget pack lunch. Lots of love George x We done as we were told. The medication was picked up from the hospital. Sandwiches were made. We met George in the lobby (he use to call it Reception when we first got here - he now calls it the lobby as that is what you say in America!). The trip to the Zoo was great. We travelled there in the NYPD bus. We never realised how much the NYPD and FDNY do for free, for the Ronald McD House. The Zoo was so busy, as it was a free admission day. When we got home George had to have his first lot of Glucan. He cannot eat or drink an hour before or after taking the Glucan. He said that it was horrible. It is very thick. When we insisted that he drink it, he became very upset. He was crying and asking “Why does this have to happen to me?”. It is so difficult to find an answer to this question. It is also very upsetting when he asks this question. It took 50 minutes for George to drink the Glucan. As soon as he finished, as quick as a shot, he wanted to go down to the Computer Room. We hope that George will drink the Glucan much quicker next time. As the longer it takes him to drink it, the longer he has to go without food and drink.

Thurs 26th July George awoke to the bottle of Glucan, which he had to confront. How was George going to attempt to drink this huge drink first thing in the morning. This time he drank it through a straw and to our delight it seemed to make it a lot easier for him. It only took 35 minutes for him to drink. George had an hour of no food and drink which he took in his stride. We stayed in the House Friday 27th July George woke up and had his Glucan for breakfast with no problems. We then headed off to the hospital for blood tests. They all came back low, but no transfusions were needed, to our relief. Even blood tests can be very time consuming at the hospital and today was no exception.for the day. As usual it was to hot to venture out into the stifling heat .

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July The weekend was a very worrying one. 3F8 treatment starts on Monday and we are fully aware of the pain and side effects of the antibody treatment .George continued to take his Glucan and we decided to make the weekend as fun as possible for George, the calm before the storm. The skin around George’s tumour has started to flake away. The bright red skin colouration is now turning brown, as we continue to apply cream, to ease any discomfort around the area. We cannot help but be worried about the tumour, this foreign body on his head. That is constantly there to remind George and ourselves of this terrible disease. There are so many brave people in the house we are staying in. From the children who are here for treatment, to the parents and relations. All giving help, support and advice to each other. This gives everybody here great strength .

DIARY 6

George's Updates Archive

​

Monday 30th July We awoke today to the 3F8 treatment just hours away. It was an early start. We woke George up, to a bottle of Glucan. George drank the Glucan with ease today. We then set off to the hospital. The journey seemed long today with anticipation running through our minds, the emotional turmoil comes hand in hand with the disease. First point of call was the IV Room for the finger stick blood test. George has now got his own routine.“1, 2, 3 Go” he says to the nurse. A squeeze of his little finger, to get blood for the test and then back in the waiting area to see the doctor. We were called in, observations were taken. Georges tumour was measured. The tumour was slightly smaller, then the last time. We all sat down and talked about the side effects. Itchy nose, hives and pain. Pain in the stomach, back of the knees feet, joints, sole of feet, just about everywhere in the body. Fever and high temperature, which would mean a trip to Urgent Care. Tiredness, the list was endless. We were

advised to give warm baths and hot packs on the areas to help ease the pain. These side effects could happen throughout the day and into the night. George’s reaction to this was not panic but ‘Oh great’. We had to make a quick dash to the chemist to pick up some painkillers, for when we left the hospital.

We spent some time in the playroom and was then called into our room to start the 3F8. George was given painkillers, then the 3F8 was administered. The pain would not start until the 3F8 was administered. It took about 30 minutes. One of the signs of the body rejecting the 3F8 is no pain, as this could mean that the body has rejected the antibody. A terrible situation to be in. As you do not want your child to be in pain, but at the same time you want to see that the antibody has not been rejected. George started to get pain in his stomach. This then made its way to his back, chest, shoulders and neck. Even with the Dilaudit (pain killer) our child was still in great pain, “Why me?” he cried “It really hurts”. He just wanted to be hugged by us. All we could do was massage, where the pain was and put hot packs on these areas. Helpless to the pain he was going through. George’s oxygen levels started to drop, so oxygen was needed, to try and bring it back to normal . He started to get

tired and weak.

The pain eventually eased and we were discharged. George went home in a wheelchair, exhausted from his ordeal. George was determined to do some work on the computer, but his body just needed to rest. George started to get agitated, he was worn out, tired and said he felt sick. We lay on the bed with George and he fell to sleep. George did not awake until 10 o clock that night . He was very hungry and full of energy. He did some drawing, watched some TV. George went to bed, but he started to get severe pain in his back. He had his painkillers. All we could do was to massage his back and place hot pads on the area that was causing him pain, until he eventually fell asleep.

Tuesday 31st July Tuesday morning and more Glucan. George was in pain and felt too weak to walk. George had pain on his hip, so a hot pack was pressed against the area, as he got into his wheelchair. We arrived at the hospital and went to our room. Treatment started. After the 3F8 had been infused, George started to get pain. This time the pain was as bad as yesterday but, this time in more places. Crying from his bed our little boy was saying ‘It hurts, it really hurts’. We continued to comfort him, but another infusion of Dilaudit, to try and ease George’s suffering. The bleeping machine, beside George, warned us that his oxygen level was low. Oxygen was given through a mask. The pain killer kicked in and the pain eased little by little. Then a little voice from behind the mask said to us “I love you, thank you for looking after me“. Holding back the tears we replied “You don’t have to thank us, we are your Mummy and Daddy, we would do anything for you.”

After the pain had nearly gone and his oxygen level stabilised, we were able to leave. We got George out of bed, but he was very groggy from the Dilaudit. We helped George into his wheelchair and out the corner of his eye he saw one of the Nurse Practitioners. George whispered in her ear “Thank you for organising this for me”. Our little soldier, after all that he had been through, was still thinking of others. We got back to Ronald House. We lay down on the bed with George and he fell asleep. When George awoke he was anxious to do some activity in the house. Off to the playroom he went, his happy little self. George seemed to be getting intermittent pains after his afternoon sleep and at bed time. We are able to help with pain killers, massages and placing hot pads on the areas that hurt.

Friday 3rd, Thursday 2nd and Wednesday 1st August The rest of the week continued in much the same way. The Dilaudit would ease the pain a bit, but not totally. George began to look forward to receiving the Dilaudit, as he said it made him feel warm and relaxed. He always knows when to ask for it now. A side effect of the Dilaudit is to become very emotional. After just receiving it George would become so loving and caring, thanking everyone for helping him. In the evenings it effected him differently. He would get upset and cry at the slightest thing. He would also become very argumentative. This is hard to watch, as we know that it is not his fault he is feeling that way, but the medication.

Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th August The weekend approached and Ronald McDonald House organised a free visit to a Summer Camp. The NYPD once again showed their support by giving a display of their dog handling skills, even though the heat soared down on us. George was asked to be one of the officers helpers, which he really enjoyed. We played Crazy Golf and practice Baseball. It was great for George to get out of New York for the day , see some countryside and relax after a traumatic week for him.

Monday 6th August We started the week very anxious. The thought is never far from our mind that if George does not get any pain, then the 3F8 is not working. We checked in at the hospital and were informed that George would be having a blood test for HAMA (this is to check to see if his body is fighting against the 3F8). This was a shock to us, as we thought the test was not going to be done for a few weeks. We were told that the results would come back later that day. If the hospital did not contact us then we should just show up for the 3F8 the next day. They told us that if we did hear from them then the 3F8 treatment would stop. We became so worried, as waiting for test results is so scary. Unfortunately, George did not get any pain from the treatment that day. To be honest we were relieved for him, as he did not feel any pain. We now had the worry that the 3F8 may not be working. Every time our phone rang our hearts dropped. Thank god we did not receive the phone call. George’s results came back

Thursday 9th, Wednesday 8th, Tuesday 7th August The rest of the week was more or less the same as last week. George was in pain, in all different places, but recovered once home, with intermittent pain being helped by painkillers, hot packs and massages. On Wednesday George got severe pain in the top part of his left leg. He is unable to stand or put any weight on the leg at all. This pain did not ease and he still had the pain Thursday morning. George also had severe neck pain. We were not to worried, as we thought this was a good sign. We never ever thought that our son in pain would be a good sign, what parent would. George was examined and his nurse seemed concerned about his leg pain. She left us and a few minutes later George’s doctor arrived. The sight of the Doctor was enough to make us panic. He examined George. He told us that he was almost certain that the leg pain was due to 3F8. He was concerned though as the pain should not have lasted this long. He was obviously concerned that the disease may have progressed. He

informed us that the pain caused by the 3F8 should be gone by Sunday. Therefore, if the pain was still there, on Sunday that George would have to return to the hospital on Monday for tests. We were totally devastated. George then fell to sleep. We both just broke down and cried. We could not believe we had this terrible worry hanging over us for the next few days.

George still had his severe leg pain throughout the night. He said the pain kept moving around the top of his leg. He was very upset, agitated and so very tired.

Friday 10th August Friday arrived, George had his last 3F8 of this cycle. George slept through most of the treatment exhausted from the weeks treatment and the pain in his leg. He still can not walk. Even lying still in bed makes his leg hurt. Sitting up upsets him as it causes pain. He has been lying down mostly since the pain started. Unable to get comfortable, George becomes frustrated and upset. Who can blame him?.

Saturday 11th August The weekend arrived and yet again we find ourselves hoping that it will never end, as we are so scared of how George will feel on Sunday. His pain had not eased at all by the end of Saturday night. He is finding it so difficult to get comfortable. He does not want to drink, as he knows that this will make him want to go to the toilet. Going to the toilet is so difficult, as even moving his legs apart for him to use the urine bottle is painful. We spent Saturday in our room. George in bed. The only thing George wanted to do was watch telly. He watched several episodes of his much loved Dr Who. After this we told him he could watch whatever he wanted. He did not know what he wanted to watch, which is so unlike George. We flicked through the unlimited amount of channels, trying to find something that would take his mind off the pain, or at least make it a little bit bearable for him. All we can do is massage, apply hot packs and give him pain relief. We try to make him comfortable and

smother him with our love. We can only hope that the pain will be gone in the morning. We would do anything to make the pain go away.

DIARY 7

George's Updates Archive

​

Sunday 12th August Unfortunately, George woke up through the night and needless to say the pain was still there Sunday. It did not appear to have eased at all. We managed to encourage George to get in his wheelchair and go and see the children downstairs. As we thought this may do him some good. It was so painful for him getting in the wheelchair. We managed to take him downstairs, but he just wanted to go back to bed. He spent all day in bed. He did not want to eat anything. We managed to get him to drink. George went to sleep quite early in the evening. We stayed up, unable to sleep. We dread to think what will happen tomorrow. We have to stay positive, otherwise we will never get through the day.

Monday 13th August We woke up and were so worried about the day ahead of us. George was awake during the night with pain. We really wish that the pain would just go away. We arrived at the hospital and George was examined. He started to cry whilst being examined. The nurse took George’s temperature and it was really high. We were told that George would have to have a x-ray of his leg. George then had bloods taken and was given IV antibiotics and pain relief. We took George to have his x-ray taken. George screamed with pain when we put him on the bed. He had to lay on his back with his legs straight. He found this so difficult, as it hurts so much when he moves his leg. George cried throughout the x-ray. It was heartbreaking seeing him so upset and not being able to take the pain away. The xray results came back and showed no reason for George’s leg pain. We then had to take George for a MRI Scan of his back. This scan took about an hour. George was so good. He had to lie so still, which was painful

for him. He got upset about half way through the scan, but managed to stay calm. As the scan was taken at about 5pm the results would not be back until tomorrow. We were told to take George home, but if his temperature hit 39 to take him straight to Urgent Care. We did not get much sleep that night, as we were so worried about the scan results and we had to take George’s temperature every few hours.

Tuesday 14th August We did not want to get out of bed this morning. Just wanted to stay there all day and pretend that everything is fine. We can not put into words how scared we were when we arrived at the hospital. The scan results had not been received when we first got there. George had to have more bloods taken and IV Antibiotics. George’s Doctor then arrived and told us that the scan results showed up no reason for George’s leg pain. We were so relieved. We were so worried that George may have a tumour on his spine, hip or leg. George’s leg pain had baffled the Doctors. We were advised to go home and return to the hospital on Thursday. We were gone in a flash! George seems to be more of himself today. He does not seem so tired. He was able to stand and took a couple of steps, with some help. He is still not eating though and said he felt a bit sick. His temperature is still high, so we are having to giving him Paracetamol

Wednesday 15th August We were so glad to be having a day off from the hospital. Then we got a phone call advising us that George had been booked in for a Bone Scan on Thursday. We then started to panic, yet again. George’s temperature was still high and his leg still hurt. He still did not want to eat. We told him he could eat whatever he wanted. He told us he wanted Burger King. We got him his much loved Burger King, but he only ate a few chips and took one bite of the chicken strips. We stayed in our room for the day, as usual watching DVD and playing games. George seemed to have a little more energy and did not want to go sleep. Eventually he feel to sleep. Once again we stayed up. We kept encouraging each other to stay positive, as this is the only way to get through it all.

Thursday 16th August We were at the hospital for 8am. George had to have medication through his hickman line. We were told to return to the hospital at 12 O’clock for the scan. On the way home we came up with a plan to help George to eat. We went to McDonald’s and ordered him breakfast, but he would not eat it. We were so disappointed. We returned to the house. George wanted to go to the Summer Camp, in the Playroom. We took him down there in his wheelchair. He told us that we could leave him there and collect him on our way to the hospital (that’s more like the George we know!).We left our room and went and got George from the playroom. We then went to the hospital and George had his scan. As usual he lay very still. We were told the results could take 1 to 2 days. Whilst there we had a phone call from the Paediatric Day Care. We were informed that George’s blood results had shown that he had an infection. We had to return there immediately. Once there we were informed that George had bacteria in his

blood and would have to be admitted to Hospital for IV Antibiotics. This was the reason for his high temperature. George got upset when he realised that he would have to stay in hospital. He really wanted to return to Ronald McDonald House and go to Summer Camp. We were moved to the Paediatric Ward. We had to share a room divided by a curtain . George was not impressed, as this had never happened before. All the times we were at Great Ormond Street and his local Hospital, he always had his own room. When we last stayed at Memorial, George was in Isolation, so he had his own room. We had to hide our laughter. George was saying “Why do we have to share. Can’t I have my own room?” He finally settled in and actually ate a packet of crisps and a bowl of Cheerios, so we were happy (even if he was not!). George still got a temperature that night and he woke with leg pain.

Friday 17th August We got the results of George’s blood test today and he was low on HB. He had to have a blood transfusion. His leg pain is still there, but he is able to move his leg a bit better. The most important thing today, for George, is that the new High School Musical 2 film is being premiered on the Disney Channel. George has been talking about it for months. Since he woke up, he has been counting the hours until he sees the new film. George is really concerned that he will not be able to hear all the film, as he is sharing a room! Our main concern is that every time the curtain was pulled back, to George’s section of the room, we knew that someone was entering to see him. Every time this happened we started to panic, as we thought that it was George’s Doctor with the results. George’s Doctor never came to see us, therefore we had no results. Some people may think we should have chased him up and asked for the results. We think that if he knew the results he would have told us. Also, not

knowing is great, as we can, yet again, pretend that everything is fine. When you are in the situation that we are in any day that can be “normal” is so great. So we are going to enjoy being “normal” over the weekend and hopefully no Doctors will come and pull that curtain back and give us the fright of our lives. George really enjoyed the film and we feel sure that he will be talking about it for days.

Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th August We would really love to wake up to George brushing his teeth and rushing off to summer camp. Instead we awoke to George’s IV pump bleeping. He was still fast asleep. We feel sure, that after a couple of years of having to attend hospital, George doesn’t even hear the bleeping machines anymore, as he has got used to them. George’s leg still hurts, but does appear to be improving. He has still managed to get high temperatures. George has been through so much. He is only 9 years old. Even an adult could not cope with what he has been through. George has coped so well. He is so brave and strong. We will cope with the results in the morning, no matter what they are, we will continue the fight for George.

Monday 20th August

Unfortunately George is still getting high temperatures. We are not allowed to leave the hospital until he has been free of a high temp for 24 hours. George’s Doctor arrived to see us. We tried not to panic. He informed us that the scan had not shown up any obvious reason for George’s leg pain. He informed us that neuroblastoma was still present in the area, but that it had not progressed, since the last scan. Yet again we were so relieved. The disease had not got worse in the area and that was our main concern. He told us that if the high temp continued then George’s hickman line maybe infected and have to be removed. George would hate to loose his hickman line. Having this line means he does not need to have any needles. All we wish for now is the high temp to stop. George was a lot better in himself today. He was able to walk to the play room, albeit with a little help. He did not need any pain relief for his leg, which was great. He still finds it hard to lift his leg, but it

looks like things are improving. George is still off his food. He did not eat anything today. We hope that it is because of the infection and high temp.

Tuesday 21st August

George had another high temp, but not too high. We were told that although the temperatures he was getting were high, they were gradually coming down. We had to take George for another x-ray. This was a lot easier then the last one, as his leg is not hurting as much. George walked around the ward today. He needed a lot of encouragement, but managed it, with help. George was very quiet today and he found it hard to concentrate on things. One of his nurses from Day Care brought him some books and this really perked him up. We got the x-ray results and they were fine. George’s Doctor arrived to see him and advised us that George would have to have an MIBG Scan. This was for two reasons. Firstly to see how the 3F8 had worked and secondly to get an even better look at the problem area. They are trying to sort out an appointment for us. Another scan, more dreaded results, we should be used to this by now. During the night, the Orthopaedic Doctor came round to check on George. He was under

the opinion that nothing new had shown up on the results of the Bone Scan and that he thought the problem was caused from the 3F8 treatment. In the morning, a Team of Orthopaedic Doctors came to visit George. They once again, informed us that they had studied the Bone Scan and could not find any reason for George’s leg problem.

DIARY 8

George's Updates Archive

​

Wednesday 22nd August

Thankfully George has not had a high temp for 24 hours. At last we can be allowed to go home. We will have to administer IV Antibiotics every 12 hours, but this is a small price to pay to get back to the Ronald McD House. We arrived home, to Ronald McD House and everyone we met was so pleased to see George. It was great to be back. We took delivery of the antibiotics and a nurse showed us how to administer them. George watched every thing that was happening. We feel sure that he knows more about how to administer the antibiotics then we do!

Thursday 23rd August

We woke up and had to give George his first lot of IV Antibiotics. George watched our every move and made sure that we done everything right. He is still off his food and has not got a lot of energy. We had to go to the hospital to get a blood test and also a HAMA test. The HAMA test results will take a week. This is the test that will determined whether Georges body has rejected the 3F8. We got home from the hospital and just stayed in our room, watching George’s much loved Eastenders (sent from England).

Friday 24th August

George is able to walk now, with no help from us. His leg is so much better. Unfortunately, he is still not eating. We got a prescription from the hospital, for some medication that should encourage George to eat. We gave him this medicine as soon as we got it. It should take a couple of days to work. We really wish that it would work straight away. At the moment George is getting all his vitamins from vitamin enhanced water. It is so horrible seeing George with no energy. He should be running around, having fun. Instead he wants to stay in bed and just sleep. When George is feeling down, it makes us feel down also. We just want him to be his normal happy, funny and entertaining self.

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th August

Good old Ronald McD House had arranged a trip. We were all taken Bowling. We had such a nice time. Everyone was encouraging each other. George had a great time, but half way through he got really tired and was trying to sleep. When we got home George slept for a couple of hours. He eventually woke at about 10.30pm and stayed awake until approx 1am. Sunday arrived and no matter what we done, George would not eat. We tried everything. George just wants to stay in his room and sleep. We really hate to see him like this. We think that it could be the antibiotics. Our main concern is that the disease is spreading and that George has no energy because of this. George has to have his MIBG injection on Tuesday and then the MIBG Scan on Wednesday. We know that George will do well and be really good, whilst having all these tests. It is us, his parents that will be having trouble dealing with these tests, as we know, all tests lead to results.

Monday 27th August

George does not have much energy today. He is not his usual chatty self. He managed to go to the “lobby” to collect a parcel. He opened the parcel and was pleased with his gifts. We stayed in our room until 4pm. We then headed down to the dinning area to get George something to eat. He only wanted toast. We got this for him and to our delight he ate 2 slices. It is so strange, how happy you are, when your son eats two slices of toast. Ronald McD House had arranged a trip on the Fire Departments Boat. We all managed to squeeze into the bus. As usual the NYPD transported us, with their lights flashing! The boat trip was amazing. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and The Brooklyn Bridge. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air. The Fire Dept let the children dress up in their uniforms. George only had the helmet on for a few seconds and it was too heavy for him. George felt very tired and we could see he was not himself. He said that he enjoyed the trip. When we got home

George ate a whole packet of crisps. We read some of his much loved book and then he fell asleep. We have yet more tests ahead of us and do not know how we will get through it, but we will, because we have to, for George’s sake.

Tuesday 28th August

We had to go to the hospital for George to receive the MIBG injection, for his MIBG Scan tomorrow. We arrived on time for the appointment, but we were asked George’s weight and height. We knew that he had lost weight, as he had not been eating. We had to go to the Peds Ward to obtain his weight and height. They weighed George and he had lost 5 kg, since last being weighed. We were then asked if George had taken his SK11 medication to protect his thyroid, as the MIBG injection can harm them. We told them that we had not been given this. George then had to take this medication. We had to wait 2 hours for the medication to work. We finally arrived at Nuclear Medicines for George to have his injection, better late then never. George did start to panic a bit before getting the injection, but he soon calmed down. The injection is given through his hickman line, so that makes it a little easier. By the time we had done all of this the whole day has just passed us by. George is more of

himself today and that makes us a bit happier. George has had the MIBG injection, this means he will have the MIBG Scan in the morning. We are so worried about this scan, as it highlights the NB in George’s body. We tried to have a nice evening together, but the scan is never far from our minds.

Wednesday - Scan day 29th August

George had an appointment with the radiotherapy people today, because of the pain in his leg. We went to the appointment, but had to leave for George to get his MIBG Scan. He was so good, he just got on the table, knowing that he would be there for a couple of hours. We asked if he wanted us to read him his much loved book, but he just wanted to “relax for a while”. George lay on the bed. We sat there looking at the floor. We were too scared to look up at the monitor screens in the room. As we would see things that we really do not want to see. NB shows up on the scans as a bright glow, we did not want to sit there for hours watching this happening. George wanted us to read to him, about half way through the scan, which we did. It took his mind off the problem and ours. After the scan we had to return to Peds Ward for our appointment with George’s Doctor. We were first seen by a nurse. She told us that George’s stool sample, that had been taken whilst he was in hospital, had come

back positive. George would therefore need to have antibiotics. Not a problem we thought. While we were sitting in Peds, waiting to be seen, we were so scared and worried. We knew that the Doctors could get the scan results and read them themselves. We were sitting there knowing that someone was looking at the results. We did not even speak to each other. We could not say a word to each other, as we were so scared. We were then called into the office to meet with George’s Doctor. George’s Doctor checked George out and then asked him if he wanted to go to the playroom. Bad sign. George said he would go to the playroom and our hearts dropped. The tumour on George’s head did not show up on the scan. Therefore it is free of disease. Although he still has a lump there, it is probably scar tissue. We were then told that George’s scan had showed that the disease had progressed since the last one. We were so shocked. It took a while for “the penny to drop”. We did not know what to say.

Again, we were lost for words. What could anyone say when faced with our situation. We were told about the options that were now available for George. The 3F8 only works well with minimal disease, so we have to try and minimise it before anymore 3F8. We are just parents at the end of the day. How can we even comprehend these options, let alone make decisions. We stayed in the meeting listening to George’s options. There was more chemo, which they did not think would work at this stage. George has had so much chemo, we all think that the NB has just got used to it at the present time. Another option was MIBG Treatment. This is a treatment involving radiotherapy. As George’s tumour, on his head, had responded to radiotherapy then the disease may not be resistant to it. We can get this treatment in New York. We would have to get George’s stem cells sent over from England, for after this treatment. We may also be able to receive this treatment at home, if it can be organised quick

enough. It maybe quicker to go home for the treatment than to get the stem cells sent out to us. We can only hope that we can go home, to England for the MIBG Treatment. Once George has recovered from this, then we can return to New York and get further treatment, through a different 3F8 treatment called hot 3F8. We should know by Tuesday where George will receive the MIBG treatment. We are so “in limbo” at the moment. We have all heard of the expression “the weight of the world on your shoulders”. We had never really thought about this expression before. We now know what this really means. Our shoulders ache. We feel like we have been in a boxing ring. We are aching all over. This is purely through worry, upset and stress We will continue to be happy and normal with George. Inside our minds it is a totally different story.

DIARY 9

George's Updates Archive

​

Thursday and Friday 30th & 31st August

We have spent the last couple of days just with each other. We have stayed in bed, until really late. Just cuddling and being near each other. We have watched a lot of George’s favourite programmes on Telly. We did not venture out much, only to buy George’s much loved High School Musical 2 CD. George spent most of the night, just listening to it and learning the words. George even tries to dance the dance moves from the film, which makes us so happy. George is more of himself now. He has started to eat more, which is great. He had bangers and mash for dinner tonight and even wanted ice cream after this. George is so full of life. As any 9 year old would be. We went downstairs to the dinning room later and George played with the other children. George started to eat Dairy Lea Triangles. We had to then venture out for more Dairy Lea triangles, as we run out. We also had to get more of his favourite crisps to eat, while watching his new DVD . The hunger is kicking in. George is so

strong and brave at the moment. We have to be the same.

The Weekend 1st & 2nd September

We put George in his wheelchair and took him to Central Park. It is such a beautiful place and so quiet compared to the rest of New York. We walked for a few hours. There were lots of skaters in the park and they were all skating to music. George really enjoyed watching them. We have spent a lot of time with other families in the house. They are all so kind and supportive. George is eating really well. He can be his usual funny self, but is quiet at times. He still can not walk for long and has a limp when he walks. As before, we will try and enjoy the weekend as much as we can. We have to ensure that George is having as much fun as he can. We hope that he can have a great and “normal” weekend. We could never put into words our fear of the next few days, but we have to get on with it and deal with whatever is going to happen.

Monday 3rd September- Thursday 6th September

This whole week has been a waiting game. We discussed having the MIBG treatment at home, many families go home for treatment if it is available at their local hospitals, this is our aim if possible as it is available at home. This treatment would mean a lot of hospitalisation, over a lengthy time period, Why not then be at home for this we thought. We had spoken to Doctors here and also back in the UK. We also had to make sure that George’s blood level of NB had not increased too much since his last test. We were worried that if we took George home we would not receive the treatment quick enough. Time is never on your side when NB is involved. We were so worried that George’s level would be high. We got the result back and were told that we were able to travel back home for this treatment.

We told George today that we were going home. At first he did not believe us and then he started to cry. We asked him why he was crying and he said “I can see Tilly again”, that’s his puppy. We said “Are they happy tears then?” George replied “Yes they are, but I am sad to be leaving here as well”. We had to yet again, hold back our tears. There have been some good and fun times. George has met so many kind people that he and we, have bonded with and we feel like we have known all these wonderful people and families for years.

We have to leave here over the weekend. We are currently trying to sort out the flights We have a hospital appointment on Monday morning at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). In himself George is in good humour. He can not walk, due to the pain in his leg. He said today that he will miss his wheelchair! We must get one organised for home. He is eating and drinking well. We are looking forward to going home to see everyone but at the same time we will miss people at The Ronald McDonald House.

George has an appointment at the hospital here on Friday morning (7 Sep). This is to check his bloods, to make sure he does not need any transfusions before we go home. The nurses are lovely at the hospital and we are not looking forward to George saying Goodbye to them for the time being. Feel sure that it will be an emotional visit. George bonds with everybody we meet, any goodbye for whatever length of time can be emotional, as George is so loving and caring.

All that is left for us to do now is our packing. It is amazing how many toys, games and other things that George has been given, since we got here. We realise that they will not all fit in the 3 cases we arrived here with. We will have to pop out at some stage and buy another case or very large bag!

We are dreading saying Goodbye to everyone at Ronald McDonald House. We will miss them all so much. The staff and all the families here are so supportive. We know that we will miss their support so much when we return home.

We live in hope that the MIBG Treatment will have an effect on the NB. We can then return to New York, for the next stage of treatment.

Our time in New York has been tough on George. It amazes us that he can still be so strong, after all that he has gone through. To us George is the bravest boy in the world. He gives us so much strength. When we are with him he makes us so happy. He loves to cuddle and tell us how “we are the best”. George is the best, not us. He has been through so much, at such an early age. We will continue to get strength from him. Without him we have no strength at all.

Saturday 8th September

The flight home went well. We flew with Virgin. All the staff were so nice to George. He was treated like royalty, which he really liked. George was not in much pain on the journey home. We were met at the Airport by many family members. There were lots of tears. Even George got upset, but they were happy tears.

The rest of the weekend was spent seeing all the family and spending time together.

Sunday 9th September

Sunday night/early morning George woke in severe pain. He was awake for a couple of hours. George was crying out in pain. As any parent will know, it is heart breaking to watch your child in so much pain. We gave him some pain relief. He asked if we could get more pain relief at GOSH for him in the morning. The pain relief kicked in and George eventually fell asleep. He was so exhausted.

Monday 10th September

An early start for our appointment at Great Ormond Street. We had to find a wheelchair for George, as he was unable to walk from the car to the ward. We had our meeting with George’s consultant and the consultant from University College London Hospital. They explained about the MIBG Treatment. George would be totally isolated. He would be in a special room. As he will be receiving radioactive medicine we could not get too close to him for a certain period of time. An appointment was then made for us to visit UCLH on Wednesday. George then had a blood test. We were informed that George would have to have a GFR Test, this is to check kidney function, we would receive the appointment soon. GOSH prescribed George some more pain relief. We truly hope that these will take the pain away.

We had just arrived home, when GOSH rang with the blood results. We were told that the results were low and that they felt that it was a misreading. We would have to go to our local hospital for another blood test. Our local hospital felt it best that we bring an overnight bag, just in case George needed a blood transfusion. George was not happy with this news, as he knew that Tilly, his puppy, was due home today. We had to tell him that he would not see her until Tuesday.

We went to our local hospital. The blood results came back. George’s HB was low. He would need a transfusion. They said that we go home and come back early Tuesday morning. We asked if we could come in later Tuesday, as all three of us were suffering from Jet Lag, we were finding it hard to keep our eyes open. They told us to be in for 1pm. We eventually arrived home at 11pm. We were all exhausted, especially George.

DIARY 10

George's Updates Archive

​

Tuesday 11th September

We woke up very late indeed. George’s leg pain seems a bit better. We went to the local hospital for George to receive his HB transfusion. We got back quite late from the hospital. We could not collect Tilly, as it was late and we also had our appointment at UCLH in the morning. Once again George was disappointed.

Wednesday 12th September

We went to UCLH for our appointment. We were told that the treatment will start on Tuesday 25th Sept. George’s HB will have to be above 12 to receive this treatment. If it is not then he will have to have blood transfusions. George will have to be admitted the day before. We were given more details about the procedures for MIBG Treatment. George would receive the MIBG for one day. He would also receive chemo over 5 days. The first day that he receives the MIBG we would not be able to sit next to him for long, as he would be radioactive. There are very strict guidelines on these procedures. As the days go on, we will be able to get nearer to him. We know that this will be very difficult for George, as we are so close and spend all our time with each other. George loves to cuddle and just lean on us. We were also told that anything that George brings into his room, will have to be left at the hospital for up to six weeks. This is to ensure that they are no longer radioactive. Our first thoughts were ‘Judy’, George’s much loved cuddly toy. He has become more attached to her in the last few weeks. George will not be happy knowing that if he takes Judy to hospital he would be going home without her. George was told all about this and got upset. His first thought was Judy. It was decided that we would go to Toys R Us and get him a new cuddly toy, just for his MIBG treatment. George was a bit happier, but he still worried about leaving Judy at home. We were shown the room that George would stay in. One of us would have to sleep in a room off George’s room. George was not happy about this situation either, as he likes us right next to him, even at night. We told him that it would be fine and that we would only be a couple off feet away from him. We headed home trying to look on the brighter side of George’s treatment. The best thing of the day was that George got Tilly back. He was so excited. That night George and Tilly headed off to bed together. He kept cuddling her and telling her that she was lovely. It made us so happy to see him with her and enjoying her company.

Thursday 13th September

George’s Community Nurse came to take bloods. We were worried about his platelet count, as they had been quite low on the previous test. We asked if George could have a wheelchair, so that we could get out more. After several phone calls we were informed that it would take approx a week to get one. We felt that George needed one sooner, as we could not go out without one. George had several visitors. A friend came to visit. He informed us that he knew someone that owned a Mobility shop. Our friend made a phone call to the shop and we were told that they would give George a wheelchair. This made us so happy. George really needed to get out and get some fresh air. We got the blood results back and George was low on platelets. We were informed that he would be okay tonight and that we should go to the Local Hospital in the morning. Well at least we had one day off from the hospitals!

George was a lot happier today. He played with Tilly and his leg pain is better. He can walk around the house with help. We are so excited about getting the wheelchair, as this will enable George to leave the house and go to whatever place he wants to go.

Friday 14th September

Another trip to the local Hospital for George to receive platelets. We have started to really worry why his counts are dropping. Chemo normally makes George’s counts drop, but he has not had chemo since June. We dread to think that it is the Neuroblastoma. We will cope with today and deal with whatever happens tomorrow. We were in a mad rush to leave the hospital, as we had to collect the wheelchair. The lady in the shop was so nice to us. Even people we do not know are so kind. George has wanted to go to Toys R Us for a few days, but we had been unable to, since he could not walk around the shop. It was great to be able to take George around the shop in his wheelchair. He bought some of his much loved Dr Who figures and trading cards.

The Weekend 15th September

George is eating well. His leg pain has not gone, but is better. He walks with a limp and can now go upstairs. When he comes down the stairs he walks backwards. We asked him why and he said “It is easier this way”. He cannot walk far, so we put the wheelchair in the back of the car and went for a walk with some of our family. It was great to have the day to ourselves and be out and about. George really enjoyed it. It was the first time that he had “walked” Tilly. At the end of the walk, Tilly was sitting on George’s lap in the wheelchair. George thought it was great.

Sunday 16th September

Sunday evening and we are off to the Patient Hotel in GOSH. George has his kidney test very early Monday morning. We will be there for most of the day. We have a week to go until the treatment starts. We will let George decide what he wants to do all week. This will be our first week without hospital appointments for such a long time. We will try and make the most of the week ahead of us.

Monday 17th September

We woke up early, in the Patient Hotel at Great Ormond Street . George had to have his kidney test. This is a simple test. George just had to have bloods taken. First bloods taken were at 9am, then 12 o’clock, then the last one at 1pm.

We realise that we had made the right decision to bring George home for this next course of treatment. It was great to see him so happy with all his family. This was one of the reasons we returned home. The other reason was the money situation. We have, to date, spent all the money raised on hospital bills and medication for George. The MIBG treatment is not a cure, it will hopefully suppress the disease. The 3F8 works better with minimal disease and this is the purpose of this next treatment. We still plan to return to New York, as soon as George has recovered from his treatment here. We therefore still need to continue to raise money for George. Without this money we will be unable to return to New York.

George would never have been able to get treatment in New York, if the money had not been raised by everyone. It is because of so many kind and generous people that George was given this chance. We do not know how to begin thanking so many people for all their hard work, kindness and generosity. It is amazing that so many people care about George. George has been fighting this illness for so long. So many people have helped him fight it with their support and kindness.

Tuesday 18th September

We were looking forward to our week ahead, as we were going to make the most of our time at home, before the MIBG Treatment starts next week. Unfortunately we received a phone call informing us that the MIBG Treatment would not start next week. George would hopefully receive the treatment on Monday 1st October. We were informed the delay was due to certain health and safety issues involving the storage of the radioactive urine and stools from the patients in these rooms. Once again we were totally devastated. We had made the decision to bring George home for this treatment, now we were worried that the time delay would cause George to become too unwell to receive this treatment. We realise that a week is not a long period of time under normal circumstances. With Neuroblastoma a week is indeed a very long time. The disease can spread so quickly. We tried everything to see if George could get this treatment elsewhere. There is only one other Hospital in the whole of the UK that treats children with MIBG and they only have one room, this was booked. We even considered going back to New York for the treatment. We realised that we would not have enough time to organise flights, appointments and the transfer of George’s stem cells to New York. So we have to now wait another week for his treatment.

At times it is so hard for us to stay happy and normal in front of George. We still believe that as long as George’s does not see us upset or looking worried then he will not worry. He is still his usual happy go lucky self. He still manages to see the funny side of things, even when his legs are hurting him. He truly is the bravest boy in the world. All these terrible things have happened and are continuing to happen to him and he still manages to smile through it all. We have to learn from him and continue to smile, be happy and keep things as normal as possible for our brave sweet boy.

DIARY 11

George's Updates Archive

​

Friday 21st September

George had a blood test today. The results came back and he was low on platelets. We headed to our local hospital for a transfusion. George’s white blood counts are dropping also. We are so worried. This should not be happening, as he has not had chemo to effect his blood levels. We are so worried that it is the neuroblastoma. We can only wish that the next week will just fly by and that George will not become to unwell to receive this treatment.

Monday 24th Sept

Our first thoughts this morning were that George should have been going into hospital to start his treatment. We felt that this was hanging over us all day. It has been a hard few days, trying to motivate ourselves. We are only parents at the end of the day, trying to do the best we can for our precious child. Yet again we find ourselves feeling that another wall has been put up in front of us. It is getting harder and harder to climb over these walls. There has been so many for the three of us to climb over. We will however continue to do whatever we can to continue this fight for George. We are George’s parents, we will, therefore do whatever we can to help him fight this terrible disease.

George has not got any worse, over the last few days. He still manages to walk around the house with help. He has even managed to take Tilly for a walk (well Tilly was walking and George was being pushed in his wheelchair). They are inseparable at the moment. They spend the whole time at home next to each other. It is so good for George to have Tilly. She makes him so happy. If George is happy then we are also

Wed 26th September

We left home early today, we had allowed plenty of time for our journey into London, to attend George’s appointment at University College London Hospital. We had just made it onto the A10 and saw the massive queues. It did not take us long to realise that we would be late for our appointment. George slept most of the way. George had his eyes closed, but we feel sure that he was not totally asleep, as he does not like to miss anything! We met with George’s Doctor. He informed us of several things with regards to the MIBG treatment. He also explained that George’s red blood count (HB) had to be above 12 .The MIBG Treatment travels better around the body when there is a lot of oxygen (HB) in the blood . George also managed to spend a little time with the play specialist there.

We knew that we would not be at the hospital for too long and had promised George that we would take him to Madame Tussauds. When we were in New York George had spotted the Madame Tussauds in Time Sq. We had told him that there was no point in going to the one in New York, as he would not know that many people there. So off we went to visit Madame Tussauds. As George is in his wheelchair we went to the disabled entrance. We were then told that due to the lift not working no wheelchairs were allowed into the premises. George got really upset and started crying. We asked to speak to the Manager. He informed us that due to “Health and Safety Regulations” we would not be allowed to enter. We explained our situation, but were informed that these were the rules and that there were no exceptions. We did eventually make George laugh by telling him that it was like the time we went to see the Statue of Liberty and got the wrong ferry. George did see the funny side of it. We decided to see if would could visit the BT Tower and maybe go to the top of it. Off we went. It took a while to find the actual entrance to the building. As we approached the BT Tower we saw a big sign “NOT OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC”. We just laughed. What else did we expect!

At approx 9pm George had a pain in his leg. We massaged it and noticed that it felt quite swollen. Once again we tried to stay calm, but inside we were totally panicking. Was it the NB? Could it be a blood clot? Could George be just low on platelets? We rang our local hospital and they advised to come in for a blood test, to check George’s platelets. So we quickly packed a bag. Just as we were leaving George asked for pain relief. He does not often ask for this. We therefore realised that the pain must be bad. Once at the hospital they examined George. They told us that George may have an infection. He may also have a small bleed, inside his leg. It could be a blood clot. Or maybe he might just be low on platelets. They would have to do a blood test to see what they were dealing with. George’s blood was taken and we were told that it would take a couple of hours to get the results. George was very tired by this stage and just wanted his bed. It was 11pm at night. So we put him to bed and we stayed awake for the results. We got the results and it showed that George’s platelets were low, it also showed that George had a bacterial infection. We therefore had to stay the night at the hospital.

Thursday 27th September

George had a platelet transfusion during the night. His leg was still causing him pain. We were informed that due to George having an infection, we would have to stay in the hospital for 48hours for him to receive IV antibiotics. We were then informed that George would have to have an ultrasound scan to make sure that he did not have a blood clot. The scan was booked for Friday at 10am.

Friday 28th September

George woke and was his usual self. We went to have the ultrasound scan. We were so nervous at what they might find. Once the scan was completed we headed back to the ward. We were informed that the scan did not show any signs of a blood clot. A Doctor came to visit George and asked several questions. She then examined him. A while later another Doctor entered our room. We were told that George’s liver was enlarged. They had done a test on George’s blood and it was not clotting properly. This could be because his liver was not functioning properly. She then went on to explain that the reason for this was probably because the NB had spread to his liver. To us the whole room was silent for a while, as we did not know how to comprehend this information, let alone deal with it. We looked at each other for support, a reason or even a word, but there were none. The Doctors were talking to us, but we could not hear them. We were not prepared for this. How could this be happening. We had always thought that we had things under control. Yet again Neuroblastoma had totally devastated us. What now? Could George still have the MIBG Treatment and try to beat this terrible disease? It was late on Friday when we received this news. We would have to wait until Monday to find out if George would receive the MIBG Treatment. We are now in limbo, we do not know what will happen on Monday. We can only take one day at a time. This is so hard, difficult and totally heartbreaking when it is your childs life. We then had to inform our family of this devastating news. We were told that we could take George home and that the Community Team would be able to administer his new medication through his hickman line. Yet again we will try and be as normal as possible in front of George, because he can never know how seriously ill he is.

Saturday 29th September

George’s leg pain is very bad. He often cries out in pain and asks us why all these horrible things are happening to him? We tell him that we do not know why. We tell him to think about all the good things that have happened to him. We tell him all the names of people that love him so much and remind him of all the good things that we have all done together. We had to go to the hospital again today, for George to have a platelet transfusion. George often gets a reaction to a platelet transfusion. Today it was wheezing and a blocked nose. George thought that he could not breath. He really panicked, rightly so. George had to have a nebulizer to sort his breathing out. On the way home he told us that we were so good to him. He also said that if we ever got a pain or were not able to look after ourselves then he would look after us. He also said that he would do whatever he could to take the pain away. George should not be thinking of things like this. He should be out having fun, playing football, running around the park and just being normal. George is so kind and thoughtful. Even after all that he has been through he is still thinking of us, his parents and how he would look after us. He is so kind. We will try to have a fun Sunday. We will let George do whatever he wants. This is his day and we hope that he has a great day. He truly deserves it. He is one in a million and the bravest boy in the world. We love him so much, he is our life and we will do whatever we can to continue that love and life.

Sunday 30th September

George is feeling a bit better today. We had been advised to increase his pain relief. George had so many visitors today. All his family came round to see him and he had a lovely time with them all. He got a bit upset over silly little things, but this is due to the medication he is on, as it can make you very emotional. The time came to say goodbye to Tilly and George got so upset. Tilly was sitting on his knee and he was cuddling and kissing her. Once again we had to fight our own tears off. We then had to pack. We still do not know if George will receive the MIBG treatment. We have to pack in the hope that he will. Our hearts are not in the packing. We are finding it difficult to know what to pack. To be honest we are finding it difficult to deal with the smallest of things. We are so worried about what will happen tomorrow. We have tried to stay positive throughout George’s treatment, but we are finding it so hard to now. George is not aware of what is going on. It is so difficult to be normal in front of him. We have been trying our best to be funny and happy all day, but it is a struggle. We can only hope that George will be allowed to have this treatment. This hope is what is getting us through today. We do not know how we will cope with tomorrow, but we have to cope and hopefully George’s strength will get us through the day. Surely George deserves a bit of good luck, since he has had nothing but bad luck over the last few years. Our only wish is that we are not at home Monday night. We truly hope that George is in hospital, getting ready to receive his next lot of treatment.

DIARY 12

George's Updates Archive

​

Monday 1st October

Our wish came true. George was given the go ahead to start the MIBG Treatment. We had to hold ourselves back from kissing his consultant! George was very nervous. He was staying in a different hospital and would be receiving a very different treatment. We were both given radiation counters. We would have to keep these on us at all times, so that it would monitor how much radiation we had received. George would have to sleep in the room alone. There is a room for a parent to sleep in, but this would be behind a large lead door. This door would have to be closed due to the radiation. The door has got a small window in it, so we could see George through this. George has a monitor in his room. On this monitor he can watch us in the our room. We also had a monitor in our room, so we could watch him. George also had a phone in his room, which he could use to ring us in our room. We were informed that once George had the MIBG we would have to stay out of the room for as long as possible. This was because once George had received the treatment he would become radioactive, therefore making his room radioactive. We would have to wear gloves, an apron and shoe covers when entering the room. We would only be able to enter George’s room if he really needed us. George did not like the idea of this and got very upset. George would be very radioactive the first few days, this would become lower as time passed. We are so pleased that George would be receiving this treatment, but at the same time we knew that he would find it very difficult, as we are so close to each other.

Tuesday 2nd October

George received the MIBG Treatment. It was administered through his hickman line. It only took about half an hour. The MIBG Treatment is only given for one day. George then received chemo. He will receive this chemo everyday. His last day of chemo will be Saturday. It was so strange. George was in his room and we were not right next to him. George kept saying he was missing us. We had to keep telling him that we were only a few feet away.

Wed 3rd October to Tue 9th October

This was to be a very long week. George was finding it so difficult not being with us. We knew that this would happen but did not realise how difficult it really would be. We were also finding it difficult ourselves. We really missed kissing and cuddling George. As the week progressed we were able to stay in the room for a few minutes and also managed to leave the door open (just a little). The MIBG Treatment did not make George feel unwell, which was good. The chemo made him sick just once or twice. George was receiving anti-sick mediation to prevent him from feeling sick. George’s liver is still enlarged. His leg pain is a lot better. He can walk very short distances but still has a limp. George was also having to receive platelet transfusions every other day. George would sometimes be his usual happy self. Other times he would feel down. It was so difficult for him. He is so used to us being constantly with him. When George had his first visitors he started to cry. He told us that he was upset as he could not kiss and cuddle them. He also said that they could not even be in the same room as him. Once again we found ourselves trying to make light of the situation. This is becoming harder and harder as time goes on. George had to have several scans. These lasted approx 1 - 2 hours. These scans were to monitor how much radiation George had received. These results would show how much radiation George would be given on his next course of MIBG Treatment.

Wed 10th October

George was eventually discharged from hospital today. Before he left he had to receive a platelet and HB transfusion. George was delighted to be coming home. He could not wait to be let out of that room. We were informed that George was still “giving out” radiation. He would therefore have to stay away from children. He would also be unable to go to public places for long periods of time. We were told that George was now neutropenic (this means that George has nothing in his body to fight infection). If George got a high temperature we would have to take him to our local hospital. They would then have to transfer us back to UCLH. We were convinced that George would get a high temperature while we were at home, as he always does after receiving chemo. We said a very quick goodbye to all the staff and told them that we hoped that we would not see them until Monday15th October (when George starts the same treatment again).

We arrived home and the first thing George wanted was Tilly. She was brought round immediately. He was so pleased to see her. George could not sleep in his own room, as he has a high bed. He had to sleep in the spare room. George and Tilly went off to bed, happy to be with each other.

Friday 12th Octpber

George had a blood test today. He was low on platelets. We had to go to our local hospital for a transfusion.

The Weekend 13th and 14th October

It is so nice being at home. We have taken Tilly out for several walks, which George has really enjoyed. We have seen many family members. George has really missed not seeing his cousins. He got really upset one night. He said that it was not fair that he could not see his cousins. He also said that it was not fair that all this was happening to him. He told us that nothing is making him better. We did not know what to say. We told him to think of all the good things that had happened over the last few years. All the places we had been to, people that we had met and the fun times that we had. As we are telling George this we find ourselves asking ourselves the same question. Why has this happened to George? He is such a sweet, loving, funny, caring child. We will never know the answer to that question. We know that we should not even ask ourselves that question, but sometimes we do. George is not very happy about going back into hospital. He does not want to be apart from us. We can only hope that this treatment will have some effect on the NB. It is a completely different treatment compared to what George has had before. Another wish. We wish that this treatment will help.

Monday 15th October

George’s leg pain is much better. We were dreading George saying “Goodbye” to Tilly. Luckily Tilly left the same time as we did, which we think made it a bit easier on him. George kissed and cuddled her goodbye. We once again set off for UCLH. We were dreading taking George back to hospital, as we thought that he would refuse to go. George being his usual self amazed us and did not complain at all. Once at the hospital George did not really want to go into his room, as he knew that once he went in he would not be able to come out. He eventually settled back into his room. All the staff were so nice to George, it made being there so much better for him.

Tuesday 16th October

George’s platelets and HB were very low so he had to have several transfusions.

George once again received the MIBG Treatment and his first day of chemo. George’s treatment will be exactly the same as the last.

Wednesday 17th - Saturday 20th October

Over the last few days George had to receive both HB and platelet transfusions. He is also very neutropenic. If you were to talk to George you would not know that anything was wrong with him. In himself he looks well (apart from the rather large bald patch on his head and his lump).

George can be happily colouring in, watching a DVD or reading. All of a sudden he will become very upset then angry. Who can blame him for doing this? He is only nine years old. He has spent so much time over the last few years in hospital. George has had so many procedures done, some of which he truly hates. How could he possibly understand why all these things are happening to him. We can not tell him that all of this is being done to save his life. If he knew the full extent of his illness he would not be able to cope at all. We therefore have to try and make him understand what is happening and why. Even though, we ourselves, do not know why this is happening to our sweet, loving and funny child. George has been through so much treatment to beat this terrible disease. We have always been right next to him, helping him through it. Maybe that is why we are all finding this treatment so difficult. George is alone in his room and we are not right next to him. We can not wait until George is no longer radioactive. We can then put him in our bed between us a give him the biggest cuddle ever.

We are currently waiting for George’s radioactivity to drop. He can then be moved to GOSH to receive his Stem Cells. It may take a couple of weeks for the stem cells to begin working. Once they have began to work we can go home. We want this time to go so quickly so we can be together as a family again.

DIARY 13

George's Updates Archive

​

Tuesday 23rd October

George has been in a good mood the last few days, as we able to spend a lot more time with him. We were told today that George’s radiation levels were low enough for us to go home. We were so happy. George needed to have both HB and platelet transfusions before we left. We were so glad to be going home. We would have to return to UCLH on Thursday 25th for a scan. Then George would have to go to GOSH on Monday 29th Oct for his stem cells. We are not sure how long we will have to stay at GOSH for, probably a couple of weeks, for George’s blood counts to recover. We are going to make the most of our time at home and the freedom! George wanted to pick Tilly up on the way home, so of course that is what we done. George was so happy to see her and she was very excited to see him. It is so wonderful to be home together.

Wednesday 24th October

A couple of times today George has complained of a sore throat. We took George’s temperature before he went to bed and it was quite high. We rang UCLH and they advised us to wait an hour and take it again. We did this and thankfully it had gone down.

Thursday 25th October

We had to wake up early for our appointment at UCLH. We took George’s temperature and it was high. We arrived on the ward at UCLH and they took his temperature. It was 38.5. They=2 0took blood samples from George. These were to see if George had any infections. These samples would be checked and if anything grew then it would confirm that George had an infection. It would take 48 hours for the results. We then realised that we would have to stay in hospital for George to receive IV antibiotics. George was not happy with this news as he knew that we should have been able to stay at home until we went to GOSH on Monday. George had his scan and as always he was brilliant. He stayed still the whole time. We then had to go back onto the ward, into George’s old room. We were then told that we could be transferred to our local hospital. George would have to stay there to receive his antibiotics. We eventually arrived at the local hospital at approx 11pm.

Friday 26th - Sunday 28th October

George has been staying at our local hospital. He has to stay in his room, as he is neutropenic. George’s sore throat has got worse. He also has terrible mouth ulcers. The mouth ulcers are due to the chemo. We were informed that his blood results had grown something, this was probably due to him having a throat infection. George also has diarrhoea, this could be due to the antibiotics. George is not eating, as he finds it painful to eat. George is happy to be staying at his local hospital. This is because he gets more visitors, as we are closer to home. We were informed on Sunday that we would not be going to G OSH on Monday for George to receive his stem cells. We were very disappointed to hear this news. We really wanted George to get his stem cells back so that he can lead a more normal life. Yet again luck is not on George’s side.

Monday 29th October

George’s temperature is still high. He needs both HB and platelet transfusions. We were seen by a Doctor and were informed that GOSH did want George to go ahead with his stem cells. We were so happy that George would be getting his stem cells back. We were transported to GOSH and George was delighted to meet all of his lovely nurses there. We were taken to a room that George had stayed in before. George is still not eating, his diarrhoea has got worse and his ulcers are still very sore. George was happy to be staying at GOSH and this made things so much easier for us.

Wednesday 31st October - Sunday 4th November

The last few days have been very tough. George has not been eating at all. He is now receiving a special feed through his hickman line. He has lost so much weight. George is having a high temperature, diarrhoea, stomach pains, sore throat, mouth ulcers, vomiting and he is also very tired. George has been sleeping during the day, which is very unlike him. All of the above could be due to several things. Chemo, antibiotics and being neutropenic. Our main worry is that it could also be due to the NB spreading. When George tells us that he is getting any of these symptoms our hearts drop. We could never put into words how worried we are when George gets a pain or is feeling unwell. We can only hope that it is all side effects of the treatment that he has just received. On Sunday George began to receive GCSF. We truly hope that this will boost his counts and will make some difference to the way he is feeling at the moment. All we want is for George to start eating, talking and being his usual self. We really miss George just being George.

Monday 5th Nov - Sunday 11th Nov

Today it will be Fireworks Night. We were hoping that George would not realise this, as he would then know what he would be missing. As always George was fully aware of what was going on. We could hear the fireworks going off all night. We kept thinking about our last Fireworks Night together. Watching the display, then going to the Fun Fair after. This time last year we truly believed that George had fought and won the battle against this terrible disease. A year later George has to continue the fight. George has continued to have a very high temperature. After several tests we have been told that he has several infections. George now has a gut infection. He also has the herpes/cold sore infection in his mouth. This is all due to him having chemo and not being able to fight any infections, as his immune system is so low. George has now been put into isolation. He cannot leave his room. George is very sleepy. He has no energy. He still is not eating. George has also been getting severe pain in his left side. This can happen at anytime. Every time it happens we are so worried. We were told today that it could be due to a kidney related problem due to calcium build up around this area. George is having to receive so many antibiotics. He is having to have a platelet transfusion every other day. This is because the chemo and MIBG treatment is attacking the bone marrow. We sometimes forget how difficult it is staying at GOSH. You never really get to know people really well, but in a few minutes a parent will tell you so much and the bond between you becomes so strong. We feel so comforted by their company. A parent could be in the room with their child, being so strong and supportive. Then you may meet them in the kitchen a few minutes later. They will then tell you what is happening to their child and how they feel. They tell you that their whole world is falling apart. They are so upset and confused by all that is happening to their child. There are no children around so the parents are able to show their true emotions. We all try to be strong for each other. We make our cup of tea or coffee, walk along the corridor and enter our children’s rooms. As soon as we are back in their room we have to be our happy go lucky selves.

Monday 12th - Thurs 15th November

This is a much better week then last. George is more of himself. He has been taken off the special IV Feed. George is now eating really well. George has not had a high temp. for a few days. He is more himself now, which is what we all want to see and hear. The teacher at GOSH comes to see George everyday and he really loves20to spend time with her.

Friday 16th November

It is so great to see George back to his usual self. He is eating well and seems to have more energy. He was seen today by his consultant and doctors. They are happy with his progress. We were told that we could go home on Sunday. They wanted to keep George in until then to administer the GCSF and monitor how it was functioning. We informed them that we could administer the GCSF ourselves. They said that they would therefore be happy for us to leave on Saturday. We were delighted to hear this news. We were also told that George could now leave his room, he would no longer be in isolation. Once they had left George immediately left his room and went round to Elephant Day Care to see all the nurses. It was so good to see him leaving his room, although as he walked down the corridor he was still limping.

Saturday 17th November

We packed as soon as we could! We were a bit worried that we would not fit all our belongings in the car, as we now have George’s new wheelchair to take home. George had a blood test and needed to have a platelet transfusion. The day seemed very long, as we just wanted to get home. George wrote the nurses a lovely card. All the nurses at Great Ormo nd Street are so kind to all the children and parents. They all truly make the stay there so much easier for the children and the parents. George went along the corridor saying goodbye to all his nurses. Once in the car he rang to ask for Tilly to be taken home. We arrived home, just before Tilly. George could not wait to see her. When she arrived she was so pleased to see him. He kept saying “Do you think she really missed me?” We are not sure who was happiest George or Tilly. We are so happy that we are home. We will make the most of the time that we have at home with each other. George is a lot better in himself. He is eating well. He is able to walk around the house. He does still limp, but is able to get from room to room. If we have to go out we have to take the wheelchair with us, as he can not walk long distances. He is looking forward to having a home tutor. We have asked if he wants to go to school for lunchtime, but he does not want to go. We are not sure why, but we feel sure that if he does want to return to school he will let us know. We have to go to GOSH for tests early December. We have not been given the dates yet. We will, as always, make the most of our time at home. We can only hope that the test results will be good. Until then we will enjoy being with each other and having some fun. We have to enjoy the moment, as that is all we have.

DIARY 14

George's Updates Archive

​

18th November - 4th December

The last few weeks have been quite busy. George has to have blood tests on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The nurse comes in the morning to take the blood. We then have to wait for the results. Ever Monday, Wednesday and Friday since coming home George has had to have a platelet transfusion. On a Friday he has needed both platelet and HB transfusion, this has meant an overnight stay at the local hospital. Although we are home we are still spending every other day at the hospital. We were starting to worry about the platelets, as they were not increasing at all. We were told that the treatment that George had just received was high dose. Under normal standards it would take a lot of time for the bone marrow to recover. George’s bone marrow has received so much treatment over the last few years that it will take a long time for it to recover. We thankfully get the weekends off, so we have 2 full days to do what we want to. George is also still receiving the GCSF injection and his neutrophils are coming up very slowly.

George’s eating is still a bit hit and miss. Some days he will eat really well and other days he will hardly eat anything at all. He hardly ever complains of leg pain, although he is receiving pain relief for this.

We have had several trips to the local cinema. George adores going to the cinema. We have been to several family birthdays, which we have all really enjoyed. George plays with his cousins and enjoys their company so much. We finally got round to sorting out George’s home tutor. It is so good to see him back learning, as he is always so keen to learn knew things. It really makes a big difference to him. He is so bright and keen. The only thing he is not happy with is having to get up in the morning! He is so use to staying up late and getting up late.

We have received George’s test dates. He will have to have an injection on Wednesday 5th December and then an MIBG scan the following day. We have an appointment for the test results on 13th December. It is always so scary when we receive test dates. The tests are constantly on our minds. At times you can just begin to shake thinking about them, or sometimes it makes you feel physically sick. We will try not to think of these dates and just try to be as normal as we can until then. We can only hope that the MIBG Treatment George received will help him to fight this terrible terrible disease.

5th - 11th December

George had to have a canula fitted, so that he could receive the injection for the scan. As always he got really upset. Once again we found ourselves making George have something he hates. It is so upsetting seeing him so unhappy and scared. You never ever get use to it. George then had to have the injection. He is fully away that this injection w ill sting when being administered. He therefore gets upset before even having it. He is so brave but still gets upset. They told us that even grown ups get upset when receiving this injection. George never refuses to have any of this done to him. He puts up a fight to delay it happening, but never flatly refuses. We have to admire and love him so much for that. He has been through so much. Even an adult would find it difficult to cope with all the treatment. This just shows us how special and brave George is.

The following day George had his MIBG scan. He was brilliant. He stayed still the whole time and just watched a film. It was horrible being back in that same room. We never realised that a room could make you feel so scared. We acted as normal as we could, but inside we were not. It is so hard to put into words how we feel at this stage. To be honest we don’t think we could ever describe it. What words could?

George has started to get pain in the top of his right arm. He had a bruise on that arm and we were hoping that it was because of this. Unfortunately the pain has got worse. He often cries with the pain. We have to give him extra medicine. This is the morphine that makes him very tired. It can also make him very emotional. He was seen by the physiotherapist. She informed us that George is walking with his right shoulder higher then his left (this is due to him trying not to put too much weight on his sore leg). We can only hope that the pain is due to this, as we dread to think of the worst.

What we must do now is let George have some fun, be as normal as possible and see as many friends and family as he can.

Result day is hanging over us like a massive dark cloud. We are not sure how we will get through it, but we will, we have to. George is our son and we love him so much. He so deserves to beat this, he has put up such a long and hard fight against it. He deserves a break from all that is happening to him. We just want him to be disease free so he can live a long and happy life. He is so kind, generous, funny, loving and young, so young, he truly deserves to beat this.

Thursday 13th December - Wednesday 2nd January 2008

Result day is upon us. Today is the day that we will find out the future our beloved son George. We do not know how we managed to travel into Great Ormond Street Hospital. Once again we managed to get the strength from somewhere for the meeting with George’s Consultant. It was not good news. George’s scan results showed that the treatment has not worked. The disease has not been effected by the recent treatment. The disease has infact spread. George has got NB in his legs, hips, arms, spine. He also has a lesion on his spine and we all feel sure that the disease is in his bone marrow. We were in total shock. We really did think that the treatment George had recently received would help to fight the NB. This has not happened. What are our options now? None.

There is no known cure for recurrent NB in the UK. We have already tried the new treatment in New York, but this treatment only helps when you have minimal disease. George does not have minimal disease. Things seem to be going from bad to worse. The only option available to George is palliative care. This means that there is not a cure for Ge orge. We can only make his time with us more comfortable.

We still can not believe that this is happening to our George.

The day after we got the results it was as if George’s body had heard the results. George started to get a lot of pain. He would cry out in pain. Asking us why this is happening to him.. Telling us that he really hated being ill all the time. We have to comfort George and tell him everything will be okay. When we know that it is not and never will be. George has not been eating and often gets sick. There is nothing worse then seeing your own child in pain and feeling so ill.

A week later and we have finally got George’s pain under control. He is on so much medication. On Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays George has a blood test. Every time we get the results we already know that he will need a platelet transfusion. We are having to go to the local hospital ever other day for a transfusion. About once a week George will have to have a HB transfusion. The local hospital have been great. They always try and let us have as little time there as possible.

We were told that George would start to fall asleep more, due to his new medication and the NB. We are not used to this, as George does not like to miss a thing. The first day he slept a lot was so hard for us. We just cried the whole day. As George was not being his usual funny self. Instead he was sleepy and quite.

George can now have his good moments. He will be his usual funny self and make us all laugh. The next minute he will be in pain or he will want to sleep. George has started to ask why all this is happening to him. Even we do not know why this is happening to him. We always try to avoid the answer to this question. How could we possibly answer it? We truly hate to see him in pain and we also hate to see him sleepy. All we ever wanted was for George to win the battle against this terrible disease.

We will continue to be strong and brave for George. We can never ever let him know what is happening to him, as he would not be able to deal with it. We will be as strong as we can and as brave as we can. At the end of the day we have to stay as normal as possible for George. George is the main person in all that is happening. We will continue to smile and laugh at silly things. As long as George is happy then we will be happy.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that helped us to take George to New York. We feel sure that we could never put into words how much we appreciate everything that you have all done for us. People who do not know George have helped us. This gave us so much strength. We would also like to thank, so dearly, both our families for working so well together. Everyone that has contributed to The George Yeomans Appeal. People that know us and people that do not. Thank you all so much. You all have tried to help George beat this terrible disease. You have all been so supportive. Thank you so so much. It means the world to us that so many people care about George. You have all helped by allowing George to try an alternative treatment and for that we will always be so grateful to you all.

We will try and keep you all updated on what is happening with George. Thank you all once again from the bottom of our hearts. You have all been so supportive.

All our love Martin Helena and George .

DIARY 15

George's Updates Archive

​

It breaks our hearts to let everyone know that George died on Friday 25th January. It happened very quickly. George looked so beautiful.

Over the last week George had became very unwell. He was spending most of his time asleep. We knew that our time with him was coming to an end. We had decided that we did not want George to go into a Hospice. We wanted him at home with us. He died at about 1am Friday morning. His Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles were told immediately. They all came round to see George laying peacefully on our bed. We all stayed with George until about 8.30am. We then had to say “Goodbye” to him before he was taken by the undertakers. He took his cuddly dog Judy with him.

The house is so empty without him. His toys, games, clothes and books are still here, but he is not. We are finding is so difficult. We have nothing to do. George always kept us so busy. We miss him so much and are not sure how we will manage without him. Our lives were always about George. What do we do now?

George’s Grandparents are helping us to arrange the funeral. These things have to be arranged as soon as possible. We are finding it so hard to deal with all the information. We want to do the best we can for George. A date has not been set yet. We should hopefully know in the next couple of days. We will let everyone know as soon as we find out.

We could not decide what to do about flowers for George’s funeral. We have now decided that people can either donate money to George’s appeal or give flowers. Any money, that is left in George’s appeal, will go towards funding treatment for the other children who have neuroblastoma, who are trying to raise funds through the 2 Simple Trust.

Once again, we would like to thank everyone that helped us take George to New York. We could never have done that without all of your support. You all helped George try to fight this terrible disease.

We would like to say a special “thank you” to The 2 Simple Trust. We would not have been able to do all that we have done for George without them. We would also like to thank all our family. They have done so much for us. They have always been there to support us and help us in our hour of need. We are so lucky to have such a loving family.

We were so lucky to have George as our son. He truly was one in a million. He had such a massive personality. He loved to make people laugh. He was also the bravest boy in the whole world. We loved him so much.

Martin and Helena xx

THANK YOU

Thank you message

George’s parent: "We could never put into words how kind and generous people have been. It gives us strength to know that so many people are supporting us. It means so much to us."

Martin and Helena

On Friday 30th November & Saturday 1st Dec, the 9.15 music Group from Our Lady of Mount Carmel & St. George, Catholic Church in Enfield, performed two nights of music from the 1960's. £849 was raised altogether & proceeds split between the Nightingale Community Hospice Trust & George Yeomans Appeal. Our grateful thanks to the band, bar staff & caterers & all who helped make the evenings such a success.

Thank you to: everyone who kindly donated for George over at Brookfield Farm in Cheshunt, where we raised £300 for the appeal.

Thank you to: all who participated in the Trek for George which raised an amazing E8165. 58 people took part that day and 8 children deserve a special thanks. One little one in particular - Nicole Aged 9 - went to all her neighbours and collected money. Thank you to ACARA (who are HelenO'Malley and Colette O'Sullivan) who organised the trek and both did the climb as well as 38 others. Fuzzy brush man alias (christened that my Nicole)organised sponsorship, the teeshirts and the drinksand the FUZZY BRUSHES on the day and rescued one trekker who'd had cramp on the day but wouldnt get in the jeep, he'd only give up his bag and insisted on finishing the walk. Thank you as well to Lorraine Bolger for raising a further E2100. This was collected for a skydive herself and Declan did back in September and they also did the trek so they have been very busy for George. Thank you to everyone!

A huge thank you to: A big thank you to Martin Hall who raised over £800 for George by having his body waxed at the Gentry in Canary Wharf! A big thank you to Martin for his continued fund raising and support for George. Also thank you to Lou Burchall and Lauren Rodgers of the Gentry for contributing £100 towards this also.

A huge thank you to: Gerry & Margaret Collins (George’s relatives in County Mayo, Ireland) for raising €13,305.47 through the Appeal Day in Cong, Flamingos Night in Danaghers and Matt Cunningham’s Ceili in Kilmaine.

Sincere thanks to: Harry & Helena Byrne, The Matt Cunningham Band, The Committee of Kilmaine Hall, Cong Tourise Office and everyone who made a donation, contributed items for auctions/spot prizes and those who kindly helped in any way with the events. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated.

Thanks too to: The Maam Women’s Group for their generous donation and to all the people who have kindly put collection boxes in their premises.

A big thank you to: Mark Wickham and Martin Taylor from the Lea Valley High School who completed a tandem sky dive in August and raised £965.50 for George's appeal - well done!

Thank you to: everyone at the Green Dragon Pub Cheshunt, we would like to say a massive thank YOU! You have raised a total of £279 through your bucket collection for George. Thank you so much to everyone who has made a donation and for your continued support.

Thank you to: the staff and customers at The Bricklayers Pub Cheshunt. You have raised a total of £272 through your bucket collection for George. Thank you for your continued support.

Thank you to: all the staff at RBS Birmingham Collection Centre, who kindly teamed up with RBS Southbury Road Enfield to support George's Appeal. Although they can chose any charity to support they decided to support our brave George after seeing a presentation about his special appeal. Through various auctions and events they raised a fantastic £2035. This however, will be matched by RBS cash back awards so their total amount raised will be £4035! Along with Enfield, this means the total to date that RBS staff have raised so far is a staggering £8435! It means a lot to know that you care so much about George's fight
against cancer.

Thank you to: all who took part in the sponsored spinathon at Grundy Park in Cheshunt. They raised £275 for George's appeal.

Another Big Thank you to: Barclays Bank for matching their staff fundraising and contributing a further £750 to George.

Thank you to: Peter Werth at Springrealm Ltd and Joanna Hall and friends who donated £100 from personal donations and raffle.

Thanks to: Natasha Nash who has kindly raised £30 for George through her sponsored trampoline event.

Thank you to: The Woodman Pub who have raised a further £68 through their bucket collection-thanks to all the staff and customers.

A Big Thank you to: Fairfields Primary School in Cheshunt. The school raised £200 from their non-uniform day which they then donated to George's appeal.

A Massive Thank you to: The Hertfordshire Golf and Country Club who raised £286.28 through their buckets collection.

Thank you to: Charlie Salmon (Age 10) George's Cousin, who raised £90.00 through his Bucket Collection for George, Well done Charlie

A Massive Thank you to: Tesco's in Caister, Great Yarmouth, employees and members of the public for raising £7818.68 for George's appeal.

A Massive Thank you to: David Parson (employee of Sovereign Business Integration) for running the Nottingham marathon on Sunday 16th September, completing it in a time of 3 hours and 11 minutes; Qualifying yourself for an invitation to the London marathon and an entry to the Boston (USA) marathon, and raising almost £700 for the George Yeomans Appeal.

A Massive Thank you to: Beverley and Renee who work at 'Everything Mobility' in Enfield Highway for giving George his wheelchair.

A Massive Thank you to: Sovereign Business Integration plc for Martin, Helena and George's return flights (at such short notice) back to the UK.

A Massive Thank you to: the Exel Foundation, Bedford for their Donation of £875.00 for George and thank you also to Brian (Satch) for organising this.

A Massive Thank you to: Paddy Sheanon (George's Cousin) for his help Fundraising and his continued Support in raising awareness of George's Appeal.

A Massive Thank you to: Amanda Polonda for the parachute jump and Tina Short for arranging the elvis night.

A Massive Thank you to: the people that held the Elvis night and the parachute jump at Great Yarmouth, which between them raised £1478.43.

A Massive Thank you to: Mick Bassett, Dave Tilley and Billy Crew who have helped to raise £311 of sponsorship by completing a 42 mile/21 hour trek across the Yorkshire Moors. They undertook this challenge in awful weather conditions and somehow managed to have fun along the way. Thank you for the hard work, sweat and possibly tears that went into raising this money, what a fantastic challenge – you certainly don’t do things by halves!! Thanks also to those colleagues and friends that helped with supporting them.

A Massive Thank you to: Rosemary & Mary Jefford, we would just like to say a special thank you for raising over £300 for our brave George. It was very kind of you to think of him, after the loss of your loved one. Thanks to everyone who made a donation to them for our George.

A Massive Thank you to: All Royal Bank Scotland staff in Enfield, Southbury Road who raised a further £230 from a casual dress down day and carnival day. Thanks for your continuing support to George, which has meant you have all raised a staggering £4683 so far for our appeal.

A Massive Thank you to: Mary Cartwright, Steve Baughmen and Angelo for collecting at Heathrow Feeder Park where the taxi drivers raised a fantastic £1400 for George - well done and much appreciated!

Thank you to: Solitaire Property Management, directors and staff for yet another dress down day and collecting a further £155.00 making a total of £1063.00 donated. We really do appreciate your continued support for George

Thank you to: To everyone at The Green Dragon Pub, we would like to say a massive thank you! as you have raised a fantastic £182 through your bucket collection! Thank you so much to everyone who made a donation.

A Massive Thank you to: Sir Terry Leahy and his fellow colleagues at Tesco's Delamere Road and Brookfield Centre Cheshunt, who kindly donated £1000 to our appeal and will also be adding a further 20% to all money raised from staff for their future events. We really appreciate the support, from Martin & Helena's local store.

Thank you to: to every member of staff from Dagenham Motors Walthamstow who contributed £1 towards The George Yeomans Appeal for casual dress day on the 25th May and raised £28.

Thank you to: A special thank you to Daniel, Kirsty and James Taylor who gave all of their pennies in a money jar to George and raised £20 towards his appeal.

Thank you to: A lovely lady, Chris Heath, who asked for cheques & money to Georges Appeal, rather than receiving any presents for her birthday. A grand total received of £2,051. Thank you to all Chris' family and friends for contributing, and also thank you to Chris for donating all this money for George.

Thank you to: Holly Kernot who works at Hayes Hill Farm in Waltham Abbey, for arranging a disco at the farm and raising £1,030 for George - a great night was had by all! - Well done Holly.

Thank you to: Peter McDonald for his generous Donation of £ 500.00 and Thank You to Dominic Reid for his Donation of £100.00 to George.

Thank you to: Martin Hall and Jackie Collins for their continuous donations of money and items for auctions and raffle. Your support and continued support for George has been greatly appreciated.

Thank you to: We would like to thank Michelle and Dave at the Bell & Buck, Victoria Road, New Barnet for hosting a Fun Day on Bank Holiday Monday. The fun day raised £400 for George’s appeal and has helped to raise awareness in the village. Michelle & Dave laid on a BBQ, karaoke and much more, really helping to get people involved and make the day run smoothly. Thanks also to the bar staff and the Karaoke DJ who was fantastic.We would also like to thank the following local shops who have kindly donated gifts: Another Level, Brand Russell Chemist, Budgens, Classsic shoemaster, Clever Toys, European Sole, Falcon Motors, Fun Party Ltd, Grittz Restaurant, Hollywood Bowl, House of Flowers, I-John Newsagents, Jeanette’s Health & Beauty, Kempton News Agents, Meade Estates, Odeon Cinema, Quality Food Market, Quality Sweet Shop, Village Discount Store. Lastly, Thank you to Sam Crew (63) and the Squirrel Race Team for bringing the race car along.

Thank you to: Thank you to Dave (scrap iron) Ryan and all who work in the Islington dely/dist Royal Mail office and those that helped raise the £3.400. A big thank you.

Thank you to: Jeff Phillips and Eva O'Brian and the team who worked hard at the Edmonton Spiritualist Church to raise £1,115. and all that attended a great evening was had by all.

Thank you to: all at the N 16 Stoke Newington Letter dely office who raised £500.00.

Thank you to: all at the N 9 Lower Edmonton Letter dely office who raised £200.00.

Thank you to: all at the N 22 Wood Green Letter dely office who raised £108.00.

Thank you to: all at the N 2 East Finchely Letter dely office who raised £80.00.

Thank you to: A big thank you to N21 distribution who raised £1,060 through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: Ladbrokes Bookmakers for their bucket collections in their betting shops and especially to Laura for sorting it out.

Thank you to: A massive thank you to Hassan Kamall from Cheshunt, who took part in a triatholon at Milton Keynes on Sunday 22 July and raised over £3,500 for George - a great achievement and thank you once again for raising money for George.

Thank you to: two young girls, Shannon and Shelby Carling who raised £122. They raised the money for George by being sponsored to not watch any TV for a week! - well done.

Thank you to: Gary and all who particpated in the darts marathon at the Commrades Club at Crossbrook Street in Cheshunt, where they raised £2,200 for George's appeal - well done to everyone.

Thank you to: All involved in the Appeal Night in Cloughanover, Headford, Co. Galway, Ireland which raised 12,788 Euros for George.
Thanks to all who helped with the event and to Willie Campbell and Sandra Joyce for the use of the Tavern and for all they did to make the night such a success. Thanks too to all the musicians, to the people who supplied raffle prizes and to everyone who donated so generously.

Thank you to: Mary Fox at Angies V. Beaumont Circle, Harrow and everyone who helped her raise £ 1,710 for George from their Music Night (Eugene Doonan)Raffle and Auction.

Thank you to: Solitaire Property Management, directors and staff for
various events in raising a further £231.00 We really do appreciate your continued support for George

Thank you to: A very big thank you to all staff at Rumpelstiltskin's hairdressers who raised £701.40 for George's appeal, by taking part in cutting hair for donations in Cuffley on Sunday 6 August.

Thank you to: Carol Connor and Sharon Martin who Collected £280.00 for George from their Sponsored Walk around Lea Valley Park.

Thank you to: Appollo construction of Waltham Abbey has kindly donated £2000 for our appeal. Thank you for your support we really appreciate it.

Thank you to: Massive thanks to Barclays of Whetstone and the Barnet & Hampstead team who together have raised £1900 so far for George and are currently arranging an auction to raise further funds. Thank U!!!

Thank you to: Strands the hairdressers of Waltham Abbey Market Square who have raised £162 through their bucket collection and raffle. Well done to Clare Jordan and all the team and to those customers who donated.

Thank you to: Waltham Abbey Church who collected £162.81 after services at the church on Sunday 5 August.

Thank you to: INVESCO Community Support Group for the kind donation of £2000.00 and to Mark O'Neill for his gentle persuasion in assisting us in achieving this.

Thank you to: All employees at Bishop Stortford Rail Depot who generously donated £260.00 to George's Appeal.

Thank you to: Jamie Colston who raised £1,184 for George.

Thank you to: We would like to say a big thank you to Teresa, & Keighley Stimson for taking part in the Run For Life appeal and Jeff Stimson, Tony Woolmer, Marc Woolmer, Adam Woolmer with the London to Cambridge bike ride which was held on the 22 July as all sponsorships raised going to The George Yeomans Appeal. Thank you to the Stimson family for their continued support to us with bucket collections and flier distributions. Funds raised £375.

A Big Thank you to: all of our visitors to our Fun Day at the Tesco Country Club on Sunday 22 July (estimated 800 - 1000). We raised £7,000 for George - some special thank yous are to the following people.

RBS Warriors Football team - Bradley Johnson Brown, Michael Wilson, Dami Martins, Kevin West, John Rice, Nahum Muwowo, Huseyin Hussien, Dwayne Dyal, Tommy Neil, Johnny Nicolou & Man of the Match, Chima Obiji. Great win over opposing team, result 7-7. Thanks to Rhino for covering as goal keeper.

Bill, Kath, Russell & all staff at teh Tesco Country Club
Special Guest Rhino from Gladiators (Mark)
Paul & Axe Urban Krew Dancers (info@urbankrew.co.uk)
Photography - Sam Hunter
Compares and Singers Sue Webster, Deborah & Carlton - Sweetest Feeling and Soul Crusaders
DJ Daniel
Iris and the Red Cross Team
Cheshunt Fire Fighters
Ben from All Safe Stages
Magicians - Charlie Goldhawk & Michael
Our Fair & Attractions stall holders
Anita
Teresa & Friends - Chocolate Fountain - strawberryfieldsforever
Bernie, Wally, Don, Bob & Lynne for all their Post Office stalls
Lynne & Julia our face painters
Thai, our palm reader
Gordon, Marion & Friends - Vintage Cars
Rob Thompson - Ice Cream Man
Guess the weight of cake maker, Bridge Mellor
Debbie at Herald Newspaper
Meade Estate Agents
Mark Gamble

Our very own stall volunteers: Nina Mein, Denise Myddleton Jones, Tracy May, Tracy Salsden, Lisa Aylott, Jane Nash, Beverley Goldhawk, Angela Monkfield, Caroline Rampling, Jackie & Maureen Smith, Nadia May, Jane Nash, Linda Norman, Linda Weaver, Phil Murphy, Elaine & Brian Leatherbarrow, Gary Smith, Danielle Akre.

Also a special thank you to all of George's family and friends that helped out on the day and also all the hard work leading up to this special fun day for George!

A Big Thank you to: Clare and Jamies Uncle, Stephen Pierce, who kindly donated £2,000 to George's appeal.

Well done to: the Teachers, Staff and Pupils of St.Marys High School, Churchgate, Cheshunt, who collected £483.50 through their Bucket Collection.

Thank you to: Simon Calvan and Eland Cables, Highgate, for Simons Sponsored Run, which raised £340.00 for George.

Thank you to: Tara Calvan, who raised £279.00 through her Bucket Collection.

Thank you to: Irene and Laurie Taylor for the Money they have raised through their Bucket and Box Collections.

A Big Thank you to: Jim McRedmond for his generous donation of £500.00

A big thank you to: John O'Neill who raised £216 by running the St Albans half Marathon

A special thank you to: all the children at Oakthorpe Primary School in Palmers Green, for raising £800 during their health, fun and fitness week - Well Done!

Thank you to: All Royal Bank Scotland staff in Enfield who raised £257 from a casual dress down day and raffle for George for our 'Summer Disco' works do!

Well done to: the Woodman Pub, Broxbourne, Herts, who through their bucket collection raised £105. Thanks to all your customers out there!

Thank you to: Flamstead End School, Cheshunt who have kindly donated £100 from their non-uniform day for George. Well done.

Well done to: Geoffs Oak Primary School, Millcrest Rd, raised who raised £200 for their non-uniform day. Thank you so much for your support.

Thank you to: Fairfields Primary School, Rosedale Way, Cheshunt who raised £200 for their non-uniform day. Thank you for all your help.

Thank you to: Masters Academy (www. mastersacademy.co.uk) and everyone who took part in the Spar-A-Thon/Kick-A-Thon & all public donations made to the event & collection tin at Masters Academy we would like to thank YOU! You have raised a tremendous £3548.19! Thank you so much to Matt, James, Sevda for organising this for George and for everybody’s kindness & generosity, it means so much to us to have your continued support. Our sincere thanks, love Lyn & Callum.

A big thank you to: Ambers bar (Elvis Night) who kindly raised £116 from their bucket collection kindly organised by Jane Nash & Family who have generously supported us with bucket collections, ideas, and flier distribution. Thanks to all the collectors on the night-Natasha, Ellie & Andreas. Jane also carried out a swim, which was sponsored by her fellow work colleagues who raised £315 at Norgine, Harefield, Berks. Thank you to everyone who donated to our appeal.

Thank you to: Everyone who took part in the non-uniform Day at Holy Cross Infant School Waltham Abbey for George, we would like to say thank you for raising a fantastic £371! Thanks to the Head Teacher Mrs Mooney and all the staff for organising this for George and for everybody’s kindness & generosity.

Thank you to: Ainslie Wood School, Chingford who raised £431.48 through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: Waltham Forest U'10's for collecting at Woodford and Lakeview and raised £160.

Thank you to: Mary and staff at Barclays, Edmonton Green who raised £360 for George's appeal.

Thank you to: Kevin & Paula for all their help with regards to George's appeal.

A big thank you to: Gerry & Margaret Collins and family for organising an Appeal Day in Cong, Co. Mayo, Ireland on 21 July and raising 4,120 Euros from bucket collections in the locality and from the entry fees to The Quiet Man Museum and tour and Cong Mini-Golf. Local musicians also played outside the Museum throughout the day.

A big thank you to all the people who contributed so generously to the collections. Thanks also to the Musicians, Martin Noone, Willie Costello, Stephen & Jason Murphy.

A thank you to the Collectors, James and Daniel Fahy, Frank and Derek Murphy and the Murphy Family, Sean Cosgrove, Enda McCavican and Roy and Joan Harrison

A big thank you to: Young Robbie Rayment who has supported us greatly in our recent promotions.

A thank you to: All the pupils at Turnford School who raised £580.19 by doing a non-uniform day.

A big, big thank you to: Tesco's at Caister, Great Yarmouth and all of the local companies for raising a grand total of £6,579.21 - thank you's go to the following companies:

Genes for George day (Non Uniform Day) £851.82
Treadmill Tesco Employee £253.48
Northgate Hospital BBQ £42.82
Anglian Taxes £100.00
Hemsby Social Club £104.00
Tombola Tesco Employee £165.35
Bike Ride Tesco Employee £300.00
Collection Pot Caister Store £456.25
Cakes Tesco Canteen £144.49
Norwich Prison £126.00
Dog Night £1500.00
Cheques from customers £1535.00
Rawkas evening on Sunday £1000.00

A thank you to: Chris Houghton, Assistant Coach at Tottenham Hotspur for getting a signed Spurs ball for George's appeal, which we will be auctioning at one of George's forthcoming events.

A thank you to: Buzy Buddies Childcare in Dark Lane, Cheshunt, for raising £425 for George's appeal.

A big thank you to: Kate Walker who raised a grand total of £1,406.00 from her daily clicks website for George, and a thank you to all the people that kindly clicked for Kate and left kind messages for George.

They are Heather Findlay, Lorraine McKay, Sharon Fowell, Sharlene Scott, Kim,Tina, Liz Evans, Jo Heffer,Kay Rowatt, Louise Loughney, Fritha,Val Conley, Delyth Jones, Lesley-Anne Smith, Dave, Angela, Paul Wilson, Simon Chapman, Charlotte Clark, Sarah, Paul, Kathy Clark, Jean Zelei, Gary Lacey, Gavin, Lynndoe, Joanne Barnes, Alan Li, Stephen, Amy Smithson, Marie,Tom Windsor,Tracey, Carol York, Christine, Darren Bazzoni, David Gyte, Marcus Oakley and of course, Kate Walker who started this website for George.

A thank you to Cashback Rewards, Cashinco, MoneybackMadness and Adrian Fell and Lorraine Mckay, her website Earnsomecash who also raised money for George.

A big thank you to: Turner's pub in Cheshunt who raised £1,356 for George's appeal.

A special thank you to: A lady called Betty Sutton who did a quiz and sold the 20 questions at 3 euros each and raised almost 100 euros.

A big thank you to: Staff at The Kings Oak Hospital in Enfield set up a fundraising week to help raise much-needed funds for George Yeomans. Staff at the hospital started on Monday 2nd July after reading the story in The Gazette on Thursday 28th June.

The admin staff in the Outpatients Department organised a raffle for Staff, Consultants and Doctors at the hospital. The Catering Department set up for a carvery lunch open to all including Patients and Visitors. We also set up for an afternoon tea on Friday followed by a balloon release to mark the end of the week of fundraising. We are delighted to be able to help raise money for George and I would like to thank all the staff for their support.

The hospital raised a total of £ 750.00 - well done!

A massive thank you to: Royal Mail Delivery Office (Barnet).
Albany MOT Centre (Enfield),
A&M Motors (Enfield),
Industrial Blower Services,
Colin Clapp Printers (Hoddesdon),
Champ House Golf Society,
Laura - 3 Tons Public House (Cambridgeshire),
Johnson and Mattheys,
Also to family and friends and to everybody who contributed to George's appeal. Thank you to Tania and Lorraine for supplying the food. Total score recorded on the day for the Darts Marathon was 293,000 points. We would also like to say thank you to the Enfield Highways Working Mans Club for supplying the venue.
TOTAL RAISED FOR THIS EVENT WAS £3186.00 A FANTASTIC AMOUNT RAISED AND A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE INVOLVED.

A massive thank you to: Turners pub for holding the ladies night on 12th July - a great night, and thank you for all the money you have raised and continue to raise for George's appeal.

A big thank you to: The Greyhound Pub for raising a further £1700, bringing their total for George so far up to £3,400 - well done.

Thank you to: Elaine Letherbarrow for the amount of money she has helped us to raise for George, and for all her time and effort that she has put in with regards to making people aware of George's appeal.

Thank you to: Máire, Cara and the Line Dance Instructors who are Jane Conalty, Elen O'Neill, Helen O'Malley and Carmel in Sallynoggin for their fundraising in South Dublin and Wicklow. They were raffling tickets for Barbara Streisand who is playing in Ireland on the 14th July and raised over £1000.

Thank you to: Broxbourne Housing Association for holding a Karaoke Night for George and raising £911.50

Thank you to: Solitaire Property Management directors and staff for raising a total of £558.00 on Friday 29th June. A special thank you to Hanah for arranging a charity cricket match between Solitaire & The Totteridge Womens Cricket Club followed by a BBQ. Thanks also to Sarah for the cakes & Cassie for her gentle persuasion in making people part with money.

Thank you to: Eastfield School who held a non-uniform day and raised £502 for George.

Thank you to: Andrews Lane School children for creating a magazine called ‘SCOOP’ and selling it at school for George’s Fund – an excellent idea.

Thank you to: Enfield Fancy Goods, Mollison Avenue, Enfield for donating a superb ‘Candle Hamper’ and kindly donating a cheque for £215.00 from the employees.

A big thank you to: Tommys Bar, Hertford Road, Enfield who raised a record figure of £5,400 for George – Well done!!

On 8 June, an event was hosted by The Windsor Castle Public House, in Park Road NW1, to send off two members of staff that were leaving the London Business School. The landlord, Mike, donated a gallon of whisky which was raffled off as well as 10% of all of the drinks purchased by anyone celebrating at the leaving do. The two leaving members of London Business School staff Deepan Patel and Brendan Quinn donated monies collected for their leaving presents.

In total the Windsor Castle, Deepan Patel and Brendan Quinn helped to raise £974 for Georges appeal. We would like to thank Mike and the team at The Windsor Castle for their generosity, for mentioning the appeal to everyone that approached the bar for weeks and for a fantastic night – the team really got involved and helped to make the night a real success!!!!

A big thank you to: Deepan Patel and Brendan Quinn who made sure that many people turned up to the leaving do to make the most of the 10% donation agreement.

Thank you also to everyone that donated funds directly to George’s Appeal website, we are aware that many donations were placed to the appeal from London Business School staff and Faculty members as a direct result of Deepan and Brendan’s request.

A big thank you to: Johnathon (RBS employee Southbury Road Enfield) for arranging a very competitive football match with RBS Warriors vs Enfield Monks. 12-2 was the score for RBS, well done lads!!! Thanks to our ref and all the spectators who kindly supported them during all the rain. £118 all going to George. Any challengers out there? Next Match Georgies Fun Day 22 July. Call Johnathon on 07904077866

A big thank you to: Tracy May and Lisa Aylott (RBS employees Southbury Road Enfield) for arranging an excellent quiz night at Holtswhite Hill Social Club and along with a raffle raised a brilliant £416 thank you! Thanks also for everyone who attended and to all the employees of RBS Southbury Road who supported the event and dug deep yet again for tickets and donation of prizes!

A massive massive thank you to: All the employees at RBS Southbury Road, Enfield, who have raised £2500 through their fund raising week dedicated to George. This week included an indulgence day, cinema day, international food day, pamper day, cake & sweet day and a raffle. Donations for pampering, prizes and food were greatly received from staff and family @ Tesco's, Morrisons, Homebase, Marks and Spencers, Makro, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme Donuts, Sally Hair & Beauty Supplies, Cicero Delicatessen, Europa' 93 Italian Pattiserie, Helionova Ltd, Cetun Cosmetics Ltd, and UCG Cinemas. Thank you once again for all your continued and dedicated support with all the events the staff are kindly organising!

A big thank you to: Charlene Bowes (RBS employee from Southbury Road Enfield) & family who kindly gave up 2 weekends raising money to raise £160 for The George Yeomans Appeal and providing the winning trophy for the fastest goal competition! Thank you also to Ridgeway Rovers and Ryan F.C for allowing this to take place during their presentations.

A big thank you to: George & Charlie's School - Andrews Lane, for raising over £1100 from a non-uniform day - well done!

A big thank you to: The Greyhound pub for raising £1700 from their raft race on Sunday 24 June - well done!

Thank you to: Sovereign Business Integration, Enterprise and More Creative (Metro Point, Cockfosters). For raising £901 from a dress down day.

A big thank you to: The Texan Dudes who raised £728 at their Line Dance on Saturday 23 June - Well done.

A big thank you to: Yarmoth Dog Stadium who held a dog night for George which raised £1500. Also a thank you to the sponsors. N.J. Short Engineering, Vauxhall Holiday Park, Green Gate Inn, H. Blake Butchers, Tesco Social Club, Tina Short and Festival Enterprises.

A big thank you to: Waltham Forest Under 10's - Max, Michael, Jake, Callum, Rian, Enver, Erkan, Oliver, Callum and Paige for collecting at the Waltham Forest Presentation Evening and at the Woodford Youth Tournament, where they raised £851.28.

Thank you to: Greyhound Pub who raised £400 from their fun day on Saturday 16th June

A huge thank you to: Headrush Hairdressers in Cheshunt for raising over £3,000 from their fun day on Saturday 16 June and also from their bucket collections.

Martin and Helena would like to thank Royal Mail, and all Royal Mail employees for their support. A special thank you to N13 and N21 Sorting Office and Distribution for all their continued support and contributions towards George's appeal. It has given us great strength.

A big thank you to: Dewhurst St Mary's School in Cheshunt, who raised £386.23 from their non-uniform day in aid of George's appeal.

A huge thank you to: Carolyn Smith who works at De La Rue Currency in Debden, Essex. She successfully completed a parachute jump on 24 May 2007 on behalf of George and raised £3,500 - Well done to Carolyn.

Thank you to: The Distribution Post Office N21 and Fairview Homes who raised £1,160 through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: Hertfordshire Golf & Country Club who raised £350 Through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: Carlton Meres Country Club who raised £435 through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: The Postmen at Walthamstow Delivery Office E17 for raising £400 through their bucket collection.

A big thank you to: Sovereign Business Integration plc based at Cockfosters in Hertfordshire, for paying for Martin, Helena and George's flights to America.

Thank you to: Lesley at Fairview Homes for baking cakes and raising £520.

Thank you to: Cara Mercier and her family and friends for raising £2,231, from their raffle and quiz night at The Tonic Pub, Blackrock in Ireland.

Thank you to: A young cadet called Sam Ridley who has raised £1000 worth of sponsors alone for the kick-a-thon this Saturday at the Masters Academy event. Unfortunately, due to injury, she is unable to do the kick-a-thon. However, she has kindly donated all her sponsorship money to Sevda - chin up Sam, and a great effort to get this money raised for George

Thank you to: The Goffs Oak Pub for arranging the auction night, and to all the people that donated the auction prizes. Also, thank you to the public who bought the prizes and donated their change into George's appeal. We raised £610 from lastnight. A great effort.

Thank you to: Redcorn Ltd Car Breakers who raised £188 through their bucket collection.

Thank you to: Aoife Callaghan who ran the woman's mini-marathon in Dublin and raised £337

INFORMATION

ON

NEUROBLASTOMA

Information on Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor cancer that begins in the nerve tissue of the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis but usually originates in the abdomen in the tissue of the adrenal gland.
Neuroblastoma rapidly spreads through the body, making it difficult to treat.
Nearly 70% of those children first diagnosed, have a disease that has already metastasized or spread to other parts of the body. At this later stage (stage IV) it is recognized as “High-Risk”. The average age at diagnosis is two years old.
Prognosis for neuroblastoma is dependent on age, stage of disease, and the molecular biological and cytogenetic characteristics of the tumor. There is very little known about why neuroblastoma occurs, or about what factors increase the risk for occurrence.
High-risk neuroblastoma remains a major cause of death due to malignancy. The majority of high-risk Neuroblastoma patients will experience disease relapse. Once relapse occurs, there is no known cure.
Children with advanced-stage disease, (Stage IV) have a significantly decreased chance for cure despite intensive therapy. This is despite the fact that many patients reach the end of treatment with “no disease detectable”. There are a number of reasons, however, why the disease returns. But the main the reasons appear to be that cancer cells have become resistant to traditional chemotherapy and that microscopic residual disease is still present, although “invisible” on scans, at the end of conventional treatment.
Even following the current protocol of intensive chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and cis-retinoic acid, children with high-risk neuroblastoma have a 2-year survival rate of approximately 20%.
However, a new anti-neuroblastoma antibody is currently under production at St. Jude's to provide an additional tool to destroy residual microscopic disease. The St. Jude's study suggests that the immune system can be manipulated to target cancer cells that have become resistant to traditional chemotherapy.
The St. Jude's strategy represents an improvement on a similar technique that showed great promise during clinical trials in Germany and elsewhere. Prior to this study, antibodies caused troublesome side effects, such as fever and pain, which restricted the level of antibody that could be used in the treatment, However, the antibody used in St. Jude's study appears to be less likely to cause side effects. That suggests that it could be used in humans at higher levels that may improve the effect of the antibody.
Now the technical bit
In the St. Jude's study, researchers infused into a laboratory model of neuroblastoma an antibody called hu14.18, which sought out and bound to a protein called GD2 on the surface of neuroblastoma cells. They also infused a special type of T lymphocytes called gamma-delta T cells, which attacked the cancer cells that were tagged by hu14.18. To stimulate the gamma-delta cells’ growth and activity, the researchers infused an artificial protein called Fc-IL7. IL-7 is a cytokine—a protein that promotes T-lymphocyte survival and proliferation. The Fc protein (immunoglobulin) that is fused to IL-7 slows the process by which the body disposes of this cytokine. The researchers isolated the gamma-delta-T lymphocytes from blood samples obtained from healthy human volunteers.