Young boy diagnosed with cancer after being sent home from school with sore throat

A mum has shared the heartbreaking series of events that led to her four-year-old son’s cancer diagnosis - after he was originally sent home from school with a sore throat.

Sharing a post on her Facebook page Mummy Social, Josie Barron, Dexter’s mother wrote: “10 days ago Dexter was sent home from school with a sore throat.”

While sore throats are not usually cause for panic, the mum had a feeling something was wrong the next morning.

Having an urge to check on her young son, she found him “covered in a rash and an ambulance was sent. At the hospital wires were attached, antibiotics given and blood taken.”

But it wasn’t until Josie received a phone call from the consultant telling her “You need to get his Dad to fly home now,” did she realise something was seriously wrong.

Within a couple hours of arriving at the hospital, “I was taken into a room where I was told our darling boy has leukaemia.”

Continuing her post, Josie wrote: “We stayed in hospital for 2 nights while Dex was given blood transfusions to get him strong enough to be taken to Bristol Children’s Hospital which is where I’m writing this post from. A post I wish I wasn’t writing

“I don’t want to see my boy’s name on the whiteboard in the ward for children with cancer. I don’t want to have witnessed by boy’s blood curdling screams while emergency procedures had to be done. I don’t want to be signing consent forms for bone marrow to be taken and drugs to be administered.

“I want to be back in our lovely home with both his sisters, in our blissfully happy bubble that I didn’t even realise was so happy until now.”

Josie then writes that she knows “in many ways we are extremely lucky. We have a 90% chance of taking our boy home fit and well after the treatment is complete.”

Concluding the post, Josie thanked the NHS and “everyone who gives blood. Without it, our boy wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

The post has received over 2,000 comments, with many other mums sharing their own experiences with leukaemia.

And in an updated post, Josie wrote Dexter is “pretty chirpy right now and getting increasingly cheeky. If you don’t look left or right when walking through the ward and concentrate on the floor, you could be at the supermarket.”

She continued: “Posting Dexter’s story was something that made me shake. I thought it would get a few likes and that would be job done. But I cannot believe the response.

“I can see something positive can come of this. The blood donations have been pouring in, charity donations waiting to be made, the messages of similar stories have been shared, awareness is spreading and hundreds of positive vibes are coming his way,” the mum wrote.

According to Cancer.org, leukaemia is the most common cancer in children and teens but the causes are relatively unknown and in most cases, the cell mutations occur for no apparent reason.

However, while the different variations of leukaemia do pose different risks, the overall survival rate of the disease is relatively high at 62.7 per cent according to the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society.

But despite the sudden diagnosis, Josie, Dex, and their family are prepared to fight.