Mommy, look,” Kuen Harrison, who is celebrating his third birthday today, screams with stars in his eyes. In is his hand he is holding a 50 cent coin.
“What are you going to do with that, my boy?” asks his mother Barbara Harrison. “I am gonna buy something,” he says with a smile.
That smile, however, covers a lot of pain. Less than four months ago Kuen was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a very rare type of cancer.
“It all started when he fell at the beginning of February and hit his ear against a coffee table,” Barbara explained.
According to her his ear started turning black, which was followed by a loss of balance and severe back pains.
“The doctors kept telling us that nothing was wrong, but at that stage he was only sleeping 15 minutes a night because the pain would wake him up.” The happy-go-lucky little boy that the Harrisons used to know was actually fighting for his life.
“We then insisted on an MRI but Kuen kept waking up so the doctor did a sonar.”
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The results of the sonar showed a cancerous tumour growing in Kuen’s chest behind his heart.
Barbara and her husband Simon got in their car and raced to Unitas hospital in Pretoria, as no hospital in the Lowveld has a paediatric oncology centre. When they arrived, Kuen was taken for scans.
“When the radiologist saw us, he just started crying.” Another cancerous mass was found wrapped around Kuen’s spinal chord.
“It was absolutely mind numbing. We were is utter disbelief that this was happening,” Simon said.
On February 15, Kuen was cut open on his back from the top of his spinal chord to his bum.
“The doctors are 99 per cent sure that they removed the cancer from his spinal chord,” Barbara said.
Currently Kuen is undergoing chemo to shrink the tumour that was the size of his mother’s hand, behind his heart.
“We are hoping that the tumour shrunk to a size where we can operate or that it is gone completely.”
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This they will know next week. Meanwhile Kuen is staying with his grandparents during the day while is elder brother, Connor, goes to school at Penryn. Kuen was also enrolled in their pre-school earlier this year and the school has been of great support to the family. His parents are pleading with other parents to see the warning signs of this cancer early on.
“I could not for one second understand why this is happening. He is such a happy boy.”
A golf day will also be held in aid of Kuen’s recovery on May 30. The four balls are sold out, but hole sponsorship are available at R5 000.
The golf day will be held at Mbombela Golf Club and will be followed by an auction of items like signed rugby shirts, painting and sports memorabilia.
For more information phone Simon on 072-703-9806.
