Seraph
It’s the middle of winter, 2018, and Cass – a dedicated mother of two – has received some shattering news. Holding tight to her precious four-year-old son, Seraph, in the wake of a conversation with his doctor, a strange new word, ‘neuroblastoma’, swirls around her head.
Her child has an aggressive cancer of the nerve cells. Treatment must start immediately, she’s told, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. So the following day, Cass and her partner, Liam, embark on the 60-mile round trip with a very sick Seraph in tow.
Over the next 16 months, they’ll repeat this journey roughly 200 times, and not just for their scheduled appointments. Each time Seraph has a spike in temperature, the family must make the one-hour journey to Addenbrooke’s with no delay.
Compounding the stress of this awful scenario is the fact that they don’t have a car. Seraph's treatments weaken his immune system so public transport is out of the question – exposure to crowds could kill him. And though the hospital has offered to send an ambulance twice before, on one occasion, it didn’t show up and, on the other, it was four hours late.
Twice bitten, three times shy – they no longer rely on this service for their highly vulnerable child.
Faced with a gap in provision, they set up a Facebook group of volunteers. Every time they need a lift, they post a message and wait for a reply.
It’s a workable solution, to some extent, but the family remains in an insecure position. What if Seraph falls ill at 3 a.m. when few are up and online? And it’s not just travelling to and from the hospital, it’s the long hours waiting for appointments in between.
They rarely know exactly what time they’ll be discharged, which means asking volunteers to keep whole days free, or wait around indefinitely with the family. That’s a lot to ask of someone who’s already doing them a massive favour.
On top of all this, their lives must go on. Liam works full-time while still taking his turn at the hospital. Cass has stopped working to take care of Seraph, and also has another son, Logan, to care for – the family is frequently split.
One parent is always at the hospital while the other is at work or with Logan. And the brothers never get to be brothers anymore – they’re hardly ever together. The impact of Seraph's illness affects all aspects of family life and cohesion.
And this is just the very beginning of travelling with a child with cancer. Two years on, they will travel to the States in pursuit of a cure for their son.
