SINGAPORE: A six-year-old British boy who came to Singapore for experimental treatment for an aggressive cancer is on his way home to the UK after staying cancer-free for about six months.
“It’s a mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically draining journey, but we couldn’t be more thankful that Oscar is here with us.”“We had to take the risk, and it paid off. It’s a miracle. The team at NUH are just phenomenal, and they are so special to us now.
They approached him and Associate Professor Allen Yeoh, head of paediatric oncology at NUH, offered to help. It was Oscar’s last hope. This particular form of CAR-T treatment is different and more difficult because the leukaemia cells resemble Oscar’s immunity system, Assoc Prof Yeoh explained previously.
“We had to have conversations with the team about what plans we would have to make to get Oscar home if he didn’t pull through, and they were really, really hard parts,” Olivia recalled.By mid-January there was good news – there were no cancer cells in Oscar’s blood. There was a cautious celebration – Oscar had been to this stage before, but yet the cancer came back.. While the world struggled to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, Oscar was fighting his own battles.
“Every small step is helping him recover. He has gone through the mill – the amount of trauma he has been through for his age.“You look at where he is today, and every day he is getting stronger – it’s very small steps – but every step gets him stronger.” “The team in Singapore has been great, and they’re just incredible. They have done everything for Oscar, and they’ve saved his life,” Olivia said.
“We’re at that point where we know this is definitely the best decision we made, and we can’t thank Singapore, Singaporeans and the NUH team enough.