REMEMBER HIS FACE.

REMEMBER HIS NAME – ALBIE!

Many people reading this story about a family asking for donations to support their baby boy will, of course, feel sympathy and will want to help. No one could ever imagine that something so awful could happen to them or that they would ever have to face the trauma and torment of watching their toddler suffer.

Little Albie Waite has an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer and it may not be possible to operate. Albie’s parents, Leanne and Chris from Fairford, Gloucestershire, have two older daughters and Leanne is pregnant with her fourth child due in October 2021. Only a month ago, this loving family were happy and looking forward to a new addition to their close-knit family. Now they are fighting to give their baby boy a chance to survive.

BACKGROUND

Albie was just 20 months old when Leanne and Chris first noticed there was something wrong.

A normal day turned into the day that would change all their lives forever.

At the beginning of April 2021, Leanne was getting Albie dressed when he got his arm caught in his t-shirt. As Leanne tried to pull his arm out of the sleeve, his arm bent backwards slightly. What parent hasn’t done that when trying to dress or undress a wriggling toddler? But this was different – Albie screamed with pain. Leanne and Chris were concerned as he is normally a happy, brave boy that just gets up after a tumble or bump. But this time, he stopped wanting to use his arm, so they took Albie to A&E to get it checked out.

After five separate trips to A&E, Albie was still not moving his arm. It just hung limply by his side, but still he kept smiling and being his normal lovable self!

Leanne was torn apart with guilt thinking she had seriously hurt her baby – and that he could have a broken collarbone or damaged elbow. After four x-rays, the doctors had still not found out what was wrong.

A further three weeks passed with numerous trips to Swindon hospital for consultations and tests – and then a lump appeared on his collar bone.

The family were then referred to Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital for more tests including CT scans and MRI’s – many of which required sedation for Albie. It was then decided that a biopsy was needed and the family were referred to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, London. Six days later, after what seemed like a lifetime of waiting, the family drove back to Bristol for the results. At just 21 months old, adorable Albie was diagnosed with cancer. He has a Rhabdoid tumour. A very rare, very aggressive tumour.

TREATMENT

Albie will have to undergo more tests to find out the extent of this awful rare type of cancer. The doctors have already said that the tumour will be difficult to remove with surgery as it is situated in the nerve sheath of his already severely impaired right arm.

The plan now is for little Albie to start a course of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy and then physiotherapy. All of which will be carried out at Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital. However, Leanne and Chris have been told that further treatment may be needed by a nerve specialist at the Hospital in Stanmore, London.

HOW TO AID ALBIE

As a nearly two year old toddler, Albie doesn’t understand what is going on. He needs the comfort and security of his parents’ love around him.

Obviously, Leanne and Chris both want to be with Albie but, because of Covid, only one parent is allowed to be with Albie at any one time. It is usually Leanne, because Albie is still breast-fed, but Leanne is also pregnant with their fourth child and cannot always be with Albie during his treatments in case it harms their unborn child.

Chris is a self-employed general builder and needs to work to pay the bills. When he is not working, he doesn’t get paid! However, he has already taken a lot of time off work to be with his son and his wife as well as look after their two girls.

With no money coming in to pay the normal day-to-day bills, Chris is naturally getting very worried and fretting about the welfare of the whole family - at a time when he really needs to concentrate on caring for Albie.

In addition to the everyday expenses of food, rent and heating, the family will now have to pay for daily trips to and from Bristol for Albie’s treatment and also trips to London to see the nerve specialist should that need arise in the near future. It’s not always possible to be accommodated at either Bristol or the London hospital for every visit, so there will be the added expense of a budget hotel to stay in. The costs are slowly, but surely escalating.

Would anyone reading this page please consider donating whatever you can afford to help this stricken family towards:

- Petrol money to and from Bristol Children’s Hospital

- Budget hotel costs to stay in Bristol or London to be near Albie

- Day-to-day expenses e.g. food, rent, heating

- Normal expenses for the children e.g. shoes, clothes etc.

FINALLY

If you’ve never donated before, please consider donating now. Any amount you can afford will help make a difference. This is a truly special loving family that desperately needs your help.

Leanne and Chris have lived in Fairford all their lives. They went to school together and were childhood sweethearts. As they got older, they drifted apart, but then met up again in 2017 at a wedding. Not any old wedding! It was the marriage of Leanne’s sister, Megan to Chris’ brother, Simon!

Leanne and Chris’ own marriage was one of the first weddings in the country to take place in 2020 after the first Covid lockdown. It was a truly romantic, family affair with Leanne’s girls, Lilly (9) and Poppy (7) and baby Albie attending.

“Having Albie in August 2019 was a miracle in itself,” said Leanne. “I have had to suffer the sorrow and heartache of three miscarriages since having Albie. We will do everything we possibly can to be with Albie and support him throughout his treatment.”

Chris agreed and said: “The specialists said that only 3-5 children in the UK are diagnosed each year with this very rare form of tumour and that the odds of getting the tumour are about one in a million. Albie is definitely our one-in-a-million special baby boy.”

Any funds raised over and above the target amount, will be donated to a children's cancer charity.