Brave Archie faces childhood cancer with help from Snuggles the sensory bear

Nothing is more individual than a cancer diagnosis. For some people, there are no pre-cancer symptoms, while others see a radical change in their health.

Archie was the picture of health before his diagnosis in April 2022, just after his fourth birthday. He was happy, confident and full of energy. He loved going to nursery and rugby club, and running around with the animals on his parents’ hobby farm. He was the last child anyone would expect to have cancer.

His mum, Alex, recalls how utterly shocked they were to learn he had cancer. “Archie had no symptoms until a few days before his diagnosis. He was very tired over the weekend and had a temperature. We thought it was a virus.

“Then on the Monday, I noticed a rash. It was non-blanching, which means it didn’t disappear with pressure, so I called 111 and was told it was just heat rash.

“But I knew it wasn’t, so I took him to the GP to check that it wasn’t meningitis. The GP was concerned that the rash was meningitis related and he immediately sent us in an ambulance to Salisbury Hospital.

“We spent all day there, with doctors saying that it was probably just a virus. Due to covid restrictions, only one parent was allowed at the hospital, so my husband went to work as normal.

“Finally, that evening, a nurse told me to ask my husband to come to the hospital.

“When he arrived, they told us they’d arranged for someone to sit with Archie while they had a chat with us. They took us into a room and a consultant told us Archie didn’t have meningitis. We instantly felt relieved. But then, after a pause, the consultant uttered the most shocking words in the most matter-of-fact way – ‘but we do think he might have leukaemia’. With those words, my world fell apart.”

Alex was devastated by the diagnosis.

“The thought of losing our only child was unbearable. I’d always wanted to have children, but due to career and other factors beyond my control, I had left it until my forties to start a family. Archie was my world.

“Suddenly, my thoughts about my child had gone from ‘Is he eating enough vegetables? Does he have enough friends? Should he start tennis lessons?’ to ‘Is he going to survive?’.”

After a couple of days, Archie was transferred from Salisbury to Southampton Hospital, where he began an intense programme of chemotherapy lasting  three and a half years.

“When I took Archie to see the GP, I thought we would be home within an hour. I never imagined that we wouldn’t be home for months. Archie and I  lived in Southampton Hospital while he underwent the initial, incredibly brutal phase of treatment, which lasts several months.

“My husband had to take unpaid leave from work so he could do the daily two-hour drive down to Southampton to visit us, while also looking after my elderly mother, who lives with us, and our animals at home.”

“Watching what the treatment did to Archie’s little body was heartbreaking. Within weeks, he was unrecognisable. He lost his hair, of course, but I could never have imagined what the weight gain from the steroids and fluid retention would be like.

“The initial treatment didn’t go smoothly and we had several very nasty scares, which increased the length of our stay in hospital.

“I will never forget having to hold my little boy while he had needles put into his veins, hearing him whisper to himself ‘Be brave, Archie’. And he was – he was incredibly brave.

“He has always been a very kind, empathetic boy, and one night in hospital when he was violently ill from chemo and I was cleaning up his vomit, he said to me: ‘I am so sorry you’re having to go through this, Mummy.’ At age four and suffering more than most people ever will, he was worried about my wellbeing.

“All I could think was, he has to survive this because he is such a special person and the world needs more people like him. And that is what I would say in my frequent, desperate prayers too – ‘please let him live because I know he will make a wonderful contribution to this world’.”

“I always had a vision of how Archie’s childhood would be – from the sports he would play to the friendships he would make – but I’ve had to let go of that completely.

“We daren’t risk sending him to school, because he is immune suppressed. We can just about cope with the planned hospital appointments, but the emergency admissions to hospital are far harder.

“If Archie’s temperature spikes for any reason, he has to be admitted to hospital and remain there on intravenous antibiotics for at least 48 hours.

“It’s hugely disruptive to all our lives, so we try to avoid infection. Unfortunately this means we socialise very little, which is extremely isolating for us as a family.

A family friend told Alex about Cancer Support UK’s free Kids’ Kits, which are designed to provide comfort and distraction for children receiving cancer treatment in hospital.

“I ordered Archie a kit and he was delighted with it. He loves taking it to hospital, as it makes him more comfortable and gives him things to do.”

Archie has also received a special heatable sensory Cuddles Warmies® bear, thanks to generous donations from Cancer Support UK’s supporters to the Cuddles for Christmas appeal. This bear is much more than just a soft toy, it provides soothing warmth and fragrant comfort whenever needed.

“Archie calls the bear Snuggles and uses it to help with pains in his legs. When it’s pouring with rain and miserable outside, Snuggles is perfect for warming Archie up.”

Archie must continue to receive daily chemotherapy, together with weekly blood tests and regular hospital appointments for intravenous chemo and lumbar punctures, until he is seven years old.

“Archie is currently in the maintenance phase, which means that he can do more ‘normal’ activities. Once that phase ends, he will be monitored regularly for a further five years, until he is 12 years old.”

Despite the pain and trauma of cancer, Archie is a brave and compliant patient, who enjoys living a rural life with farm animals and pets. He even manages to do some horse riding and has started going to a tennis club.

“Archie is an incredible person, very kind, polite and thoughtful. He’s a very intelligent boy with a passion for the natural world and he loves David Attenborough documentaries.

“He never complains about his leukaemia or the treatment. He is even making a video to help other newly diagnosed children understand what leukaemia is and what to expect from treatment.

“He says that it would have been helpful for him to have more child-friendly information at the start of his leukaemia journey, and he wants to provide that for others.”

A year after Archie’s diagnosis, his younger brother Humphrey was born – “our miracle IVF baby” – bringing much needed joy to the family. Archie is relishing being an older brother.

Find out more information about Cancer Support UK’s Kids’ Kits.

Help send a Kids’ Kit to a child with cancer like Archie.

For more information about cancer charities and other relevant organisations, visit our signposting pages.