Son's rare illness tragedy
DEVASTATED Doncaster mum Sharon Gregory has told how her teenage son lost his battle against a rare cancer.
Dan was only 15 when he died just months after he had been diagnosed with with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Now his mum has decided to tell his story so others are aware of the symptoms.
The cancer was so rare, even her own family doctor could not initially diagnose the illness.
Hatfield High School pupil Dan's first symptoms were pain and swelling in a lower leg when he was 14.
Sharon, aged 37, of Measham Drive, Stainforth, said he had walked with a limp for about three months months prior to that, but had not been in any pain.
Within a week of the pain starting he went to the doctors and was sent for an X-ray. The radiologist sent an urgent note to the doctor telling him to send Dan for an MRI to rule out a Ewings sarcoma.
After scans and biopsies in Birmingham, Ewings sarcoma was diagnosed on July 7 2006.
He was admitted to hospital where he stayed for three months.
Sharon said: "I'd never even heard of this cancer before. Had I done maybe Dan would have been treated sooner.
"I had taken him to the doctor's six months previously with chest pains and difficulty breathing; the doctor said it was either pneumonia or something similar and sent him away with antibiotics, just telling me to fetch him back if it got worse.
"It was obviously the cancer, even back then. Dan was very sick almost the whole time after diagnosis."
Dan, who also had tumours in his chest, underwent treatment but in December 2006 the family was told the illness was terminal.
Sharon said: "They said that he had months left to live, when in fact he lived for only five more weeks and sadly passed away on February 16 2007, aged 15."
Sharon has three other children, Lee, aged 20, Shane, aged 14, and Chloe, who was only four weeks at the time of her brother's death.
She was in hospital herself at the time with breathing problems.
Sharon said Dan was a quiet boy who preferred playing video games to sports. She believes had he played more sport, he may have been diagnosed earlier. The illness makes the bones weaker, she said, and they could have been more easily broken playing sport, perhaps raising questions earlier.
She said: "For things like this you need to be diagnosed early - I want people to be aware of this illness. There are campaigns for things like cervical cancer and breast cancer, but not for bone cancer.
"None of us will forget him. He had a heart of gold was never nasty to anyone.
"Bluebell Wood used to take him to Leeds for treatment when I could not make it. He used to try to collect money for them.
"He never moaned. The day before he died, they asked him if there was anything he needed. He just said a breathing monitor for his baby sister."
Bone cancer awareness week runs until Friday.
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