Blood tests were taken which found Ollie to be anaemic. But just before he was to be discharged, a doctor asked to feel Ollie’s stomach. An emergency ultrasound was called for and a tumour was found in his abdomen.
Ollie was immediately transferred to Addenbrooke’s hospital. After several days of testing and scans, it was finally confirmed on January 9th 2019 that Ollie had stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma.
“He had a tumour in his abdomen around one of his kidneys and another tumour growing behind his right eye, which was pushing on his eyeball. The cancer had also spread to his bone marrow,” said Gary and Lucy. Ollie started chemotherapy the day after his diagnosis and then had surgery and more intensive chemotherapy, which involved being in isolation for weeks.
Ollie's mum, Lucy
“We already noticed the difference in him. It was like we had our old Ollie back. Running around, playing with his cars and wanting to interact with other children once again.”
Ollie went on to have radiotherapy before starting several months of immunotherapy. Following radiotherapy, Ollie had clear scans in September 2019 and was doing really well. Immunotherapy started in November 2019 and Ollie remained clear of disease all the way through to the end of his treatment in April 2020.
In July 2020 Ollie became suddenly unwell and was admitted to Addenbrooke’s. An MRI scan found a tumour sitting on his seventh and eighth cranial nerve near the brain stem which, following a biopsy, was confirmed to be relapsed neuroblastoma. 10-20% of the tumour was removed during surgery and with the intensive chemotherapy that followed, Ollie was back in remission. Ollie continued on to receive more chemotherapy, and cranial-spinal radiation.
Ollie’s parents and treating team decided the treatment pathway for Ollie would be to access a clinical trial that includes two cycles of 8H9 (radioimmunotherapy) treatment followed by hu3f8 antibody treatment in Barcelona. The family then hoped that Ollie would be eligible to receive the bivalent vaccine clinical trial in New York.
Ollie’s family travelled to Barcelona to begin treatment but sadly Ollie relapsed. He received chemotherapy in Spain until he was stable enough to fly home. Back home scans showed further disease progression.
Ollie’s family shared the devastating news that their beautiful boy passed away on Sunday 18th July 2021 surrounded by his family and all his favourite toys.