Hello, my name is Roman Hansen, I’m 14 weeks old and I have just been admitted to hospital to start chemotherapy for a very rare type of lung cancer.

The doctors say I have to stay in hospital for 9 months until all my treatments are finished. I’ll be here with my mammy for Christmas and my birthday.

My mammy gets to stay with me in hospital for the 9 months in a special room with her own bed next to my cot. But daddy must stay at home to look after my 3 older brothers and sister.

The doctors say he can’t work because he has to be there to look after them, support my mammy and help me get better.

The doctors and nurses at the hospital are great. They are helping me get better and giving me all the care I need. But as daddy can’t work anymore mammy and daddy don’t have any money for my brothers and sister or for the hospital needs, car parking, food and every day living, so I’m asking everyone to give a little bit of money to help my mammy and daddy.

My Story

No one knew I had cancer. On the 22nd May my mammy woke up in the middle of the night to check on me. She thought it was strange that I didn’t wake up for a bottle of milk. When she came into my bedroom I was struggling to breathe, I was really weak and couldn’t even cry to let them know something was wrong. The doctors say if mammy didn’t check on me then I wouldn’t be here now, mammy says someone was looking down on her.

Mammy and daddy took me to the local hospital in a big car that had blue lights on it and made a funny noise. It was just a little hospital and they couldn’t help me so they phoned special doctors from the big hospital in Newcastle to come and help me.

They came really fast and said I had a collapsed lung and they put a needle in my chest to re-inflate the lung so I could breathe.

The pneumothorax was caused by some cysts on my lungs that burst. The doctors did a scan on my tiny body and found some more cysts so they had to operate on me and take out part of my lung.

After the surgery they sent my lung for tests and found a really rare type of cancer. The doctor said there have only been 88 cases of it in history. They are talking to doctors in America to find out how to treat it.

The doctors say the cancer is stage 1 which means they found it early and the treatment should work, but because I’m just little they can’t let me go home until the cancer is all gone. If I go home I might get an infection which will be really bad for me.

So I have to stay in hospital for the full 9 months with my mammy. I need about 10 cycles of chemotherapy, each cycle lasts about 3 weeks and the doctors say I might be able to go home for 1 or 2 days in each cycle – I really hope I do get to go home so I can see my brothers and sister. I really miss them.

The doctors and nurses at the hospital give me everything I need but my daddy needs money to look after my brothers and sisters. I am not going through this alone, all of my family will be affected. I have a big family, lots of brothers, a sister, mammy, daddy, grandads and grandmas. Everyone will be there to help and support me but I want to help them by making sure they don’t have to worry about money when I’m in hospital so please please help me and my family by donating some money, even a little bit would help.

My family

My daddy is the oldest, he’s 34. His name is Stephen. He works really hard to look after us. He works for a charity at a warehouse sorting clothes donated by people.

Amanda is my wonderful mammy. She isn’t as old as daddy, she is only 31. Mammy stays at home to look after me, my brothers and sister. She used to work but we are a big family and she spends all her time looking after us now.

My three older brothers are called Brooklyn, Brandon, Bailey. Brooklyn is the oldest, he’s 11, so sticks up for us all and helps mammy, he loves football and his favourite team is Manchester United. He is too little to play for Manchester yet but he does play for his school and the local football club – he’s the captain, mammy says this means he is the boss on pitch.

Brandon is 9. He doesn’t play football but he loves arts and crafts. He paints a lot, mammy always complains as he makes a mess. But I really like his pictures. He likes cars too, he always gets model cars for his birthday and his favourite is the Audi R8. He says they go very fast but he hasn’t been in a real one yet.

Bailey was the youngest boy until mammy had me. He’s 6 now. Bailey loves elves, he has lots of teddy elves, and funny hats to make him look like an elf. Daddy says it makes the house look like Christmas all the time, but I don’t know what this means as I haven’t had a Christmas yet.

I have one sister, Mia who is 20 months old. She doesn’t understand what’s wrong with me and misses her mammy when she’s in hospital. But she always gives me really nice hugs to make me feel better. Mia is a little princess, she loves Disney, she has lots of dollies and loves dressing up.

I really love all of my family. They give me a lot of care and attention and I just want to help them.