A MUM has told of her heartache after her son was diagnosed with a brain tumour similar to the ones which killed his dad and nine-year-old brother.
Marie Hughes found out her son Milo, five, had multiple tumours in his brain just one month after her husband Ian’s funeral – after he died of glioblastoma aged 49.
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The tragic news also follows the death of Ian and Marie’s nine-year-old son Oscar, who died in 2014 following six weeks of radiotherapy and nine months of chemotherapy to fight a different brain tumour, medulloblastoma.
Speaking of son Milo’s diagnosis, Marie, 44, said: “It is still heartbreaking, no matter how brave Milo is, to see him throw up, to have to hold him down as they put the dreaded wiggly line in.
“The other night he turned to me and said ‘I don’t want to die mum’ and I can promise nothing and help little because although he says ‘it’s my body and you can’t do anything to it I don’t want’ we both knows that really what needs to be done will be done.
“I wonder if I will ever become immune to the pain around me, but of course you don’t.”
Marie’s husband Ian, a commercial director, died at a hospice leaving behind sons Sebastian, 17, Lucas, 11, and little Milo.
Doctors diagnosed Milo’s brother Oscar with a brain tumour in 2013 after finding a mass on his brain while investigating why he was so exhausted.
Speaking from her home in York, Marie said: “The two of us were in disbelief as not only had he survived a different type of cancer only three years before but the fact it was a brain tumour was just shocking.”
And Milo, who never got to meet his older brother is now undergoing chemotherapy.
Brain tumours: How do they differ?
The brain is made of different tissues and cells which can develop into different types of tumours. There are over 130 different types of brain tumours.
Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and most malignant primary brain tumour.
Glioblastoma multiforme usually spreads quickly to other parts of the brain. For this reason, these tumours are difficult to treat. It is not uncommon for them to recur after initial treatment.
Medulloblastoma is the second most common brain tumour in children. But it is the most common malignant (high grade) children’s brain tumour.
Around 55 children are diagnosed with medulloblastoma each year in the UK, according to Cancer Research.
Medulloblastoma is most commonly diagnosed in children between three and four and between eight and 10 years old. It’s slightly more common in boys than girls.
Marie, who runs a charity dedicated to Oscar, said: “Looking at Milo you’d think he was sailing through this apart from a few days which has seen him be sick every couple of hours day and night.
“Apart from loss of hair, he looks like a healthy active boy, but he has extensive permanent loss of vision and full loss of hearing in one ear.
“Halfway through the fourth round of chemo and he couldn’t wait to get in the paddling pool again.
“He sang, danced and laughed on the way back from the hospital.
“He likes to keep completely in control and tell the nurses and doctors it is his body and they can’t do anything to his body until he is ready.
“He is wise beyond his years.”
Mum Marie met Milo’s dad Ian in a pub 19 years ago and the pair always dreamed of settling down with a family.
She said: “I will always be grateful that I got to be loved by Ian and that my children had just him as a dad.
“All of the boys are incredibly resilient and I think Ian and I worked as such a great team together because we wanted the same – a family to love.”
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