I thought my son had whooping cough but it turned out to be cancer
‘You never think in a million years that this will happen to you and you don't prepare for it’
A Cheshire mum said she was ‘stunned’ after her son’s cough turned out to be cancer.
Caroline Chung's son Liam Jones has stage two Hodgkin's Lymphoma, an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. He first started with symptoms including a dry cough and being tired but Caroline, 39, just thought he had a '100 day cough', also known as whooping cough.
She first realised something was wrong with Liam, 14, when he developed a dry cough and looked more pale and skinnier than usual. Despite her instincts, she said she ‘let people convince me’ it was the 100 day cough. “I suppose it was denial, I didn't want to think the worst,” she added.
When the schoolboy discovered a lump on his collarbone which hadn't been there before, the mum-of-two contacted the doctors and he was sent for an ultrasound and X-Ray. Caroline then received a call at 3am from Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool and they were transferred there by ambulance.
Liam was sadly told he had stage two Hodgkin's Lymphoma earlier, but luckily the doctors said it was treatable. "To hear those words that it was curable and that it wasn't terminal was just music to my ears. I knew it would be a journey and that it wouldn't be nice, but I knew he was going to survive. That was the best thing I could have heard,” Caroline said.
Liam is currently having chemotherapy and he may need radiotherapy, depending on how his body reacts. Caroline says the teenager has "barely complained" about everything he's been through and has just "accepted that this is his story."
She continued: "He's been poked and prodded by surgeons and nurses and he's had had heart scans, CT scans, biopsies and PET scans - literally everything. Liam has been amazing throughout."
A single mum to Liam and his eight-year-old sister Olivia, Caroline had to stop working after Liam’s diagnosis, so a Go Fund Me page has been set up to support the family. They have also gone to live with Caroline's best friend, footballer and singer Chelcee Grimes, as she lives closer to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
Caroline is urging other parents to not listen to what other people think and trust their instincts about their children's health, noting: "You never think in a million years that this will happen to you and you don't prepare for it."