William started suffering from headaches and a high temperature at nursery
William Fernandes was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just four years old(Image: Liliana Fernandes)
A mum is hoping to take her son to Disney Land after his three year battle with cancer. Liliana Fernandes, 53, from Southport, was told her son, William Fernandes, had leukaemia when he was just four years old.
William was born prematurely, but at the age of 10 months he was deemed fit and healthy by hospital staff and lived a “normal” life until he started nursery. He began suffering from headaches, high temperatures of 40C and wasn’t eating properly so his mum took him to see a doctor in December 2021.
Lillian told the ECHO: “When William was born he was born premature, he was in special care but after that he was a normal, quiet boy. He started nursery school around the same time as covid, it was hard during that time because he started to get a lot of headaches so he couldn’t go to school a lot of the time because they thought it was covid.”
Liliana said it was put down to Covid-19 at the time, but as his symptoms continued she took William back to the doctor and she was told to take him straight to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. It was then discovered William, who is now aged seven, had leukaemia and would need urgent treatment.
The mum-of-two said: “I took him to the hospital. When we got there we were taken straight to the oncology department and that is when I started to understand what was happening. We were told he needed bone marrow tests, we were there for hours and then the tests came back positive for leukaemia, he was just four years old.”
Liliana said: “I didn’t have any experience with cancer at the time, it was a struggle. In the moment I didn’t understand what was going on. I had a lot of questions. We started treatment, it was hard to explain to William what was going on. He was a four years old child, it was so complicated.
“I told him it was a big bug and he would need to go to hospital and he needed the medicine to kill the bug and if he takes it [the medicine] the bug will go smaller. Now, he asks ‘are we going to kill the bug?’ Whenever we go to the hospital, I tell him ‘yes, we’re going to kill the bug.’
“In the first weeks he was scared but he has been such a good boy, all the staff in Alder Hey have helped him, played with him and he enjoys going to hospital rather than back to school. I say ‘we are going to do bloods tomorrow’ and he doesn’t sleep that night because he is that excited.”
William’s cancer battle hasn’t been easy for the family. Liliana said: “He has struggled with vomiting and being dizzy, they are symptoms from the chemo. Some days it’s crazy. I haven’t had any help, it’s been so hard, my husband works and I have a little girl at home too.
“It would be nice to do something with him as a family, he has always wanted to go to Disneyland. We’ve only ever had one weekend in Wales last year, which really helped him a lot. He has had a hard life for one child.”
A family friend has organised a raffle to raise money for William and family, to help with taking him on his dream trip to Disneyland. The fundraiser will be held on February 9 at The Hub at Banks in Southport.