Sam was only 11 years old when his parents were told that he had stage 4 liver cancer, after he suffered horrendous stomach pain during a holiday to Morocco that left him bed-bound for most of the trip.
If it wasn’t for cancer research and charities like Worldwide Cancer Research, I might not be here today. So much time, effort, money, and resources go into finding new cures for cancer that might not have existed for me – or people going through it now – if not for people coming together and raising the money that they do.
When I was still in pain after getting home from our holiday we decided to make an appointment with my doctor. I could tell instantly by the shock on their face that something wasn’t right.
Within an hour, I was in the MRI room getting all my scans, and then we were sent to the waiting room. When the results came back, my parents got called into one room, and I was sent to a children’s playroom with a care worker.
Then my parents walked in, crying their eyes out. They sat down next to me, held my hands, and the doctor told me that they had found a lump on my liver. When the results came in I heard the words 'liver cancer' for the first time and everything suddenly felt so real. I didn’t ever consider that you could get something like cancer so young.
I started intense rounds of chemotherapy straight away. It was a really hard time, but together as a family, we tried to balance everything as best we could.
When the treatment had shrunk the tumour enough for me to be put on the liver transplant list, I was told that they didn’t know how long it was going to be until I had a match, but to pack a suitcase ready to go in case we got a call. Thankfully, we got the call and I had the surgery.
I had more chemotherapy after the transplant, before being given the all-clear in 2015. You’d think it would have been the best moment of my life, being told the cancer was completely gone. But I actually tried not to think about it, I don’t think I was able to process it. I wanted that part of my life to be gone, forgotten, and completely over with.
Realising that I’d nearly lost my life really affected me, but the support from my family and friends was amazing and helped me get over it. Everything is positive now, but sometimes I do experience what is known as ‘survivor’s guilt’, because I was able to have the transplant, survive, and now live my life the best I can, but I know not everyone is so lucky.
Especially because I lost so many friends on the ward, it’s really hard to think about sometimes. But you’ve got to just be grateful for the life and experience you’ve had.
The transplant itself, and organ donation as a whole, means so much to my family and I; we’re all on the transplant list now. Every year we celebrate ‘Olivia’ (what my mum nicknamed my new liver!) by having a ‘livery party’ with close friends and family, to celebrate the liver that ultimately saved my life.
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