A mother and her nine-year-old son are fighting cancer together after being diagnosed just weeks apart.
Abraham Moreno Edwards and his mother Amanda, 49, are having chemotherapy and she said they are putting on a brave face by remaining positive, saying: ‘We have a joke about both being bald.’
The schoolboy was diagnosed with two completely unrelated types of blood cancer just two weeks apart after his mother took him to the doctors with a ‘cold’.
But in a cruel twist, just six weeks later medics found a lump in her left breast and she started her own cycle of chemo in a bid to shrink the tumours.
Abraham Moreno Edwards, nine, and his mother Amanda, 49, (pictured together) are having chemotherapy at the same time=
Amanda, who also has an 11-year-old son José, (centre) found a lump in her left breast in April
A mother has told how her nine-year-old son (pictured at the bottom) was diagnosed with leukemia twice
The mother-of-two said their heartbreaking joint battle has given them a unique bond and his bravery has helped her deal with her own cancer.
Amanda, a translator, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, who lives in Spain, said: ‘My attitude is my son is extremely ill and fighting for his life – I’ve just got breast cancer.
‘I’m very, very positive when it comes to myself because I have seen for myself what these children – my son included – go through.
‘I have chemo once in three weeks. He goes through five days consecutively, and any break he gets is spent in hospital with side affects.
‘I feel like in comparison I’m not going through a lot. They go through so much more and they do it with a smile on their faces, always happy.
‘Abs knows that I know what he’s going through. We have been bonded by it. It is a special bond only me and him know.
‘We are a team. We have a joke about both being bald and who looks best. We try to laugh to keep our spirits up.
‘But in truth it is very frightening. Our life is on hold and currently revolves around hospital appointments, we live from one to the next.
‘But we just get on with it – we have to. What choice do we have.’
Amanda (pictured) said: ‘We’re going to get through this eventually, it’s just a bit hard at the moment’
Amanda has said that her son (pictured) is ‘extremely ill’ and is currently ‘fighting for his life’ –
The schoolboy (left) was diagnosed with two completely unrelated types of blood cancer just two weeks apart
Abraham – known as Abs – had what appeared to be a normal cold, but his mother took him to the GP when his glands swelled up, at the end of February.
The doctor took blood samples and the family were at home when medics phoned hours later to ask him to come straight to hospital for more tests.
The next day he was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia and immediately started chemotherapy.
Ms Edwards added: ‘We went from having a cold, to blood tests to leukemia in a day.’
He started chemotherapy but doctors noticed he wasn’t responding as hoped and further tests revealed he also had myeloid leukemia – a totally separate cancer – two weeks later.
She added: ‘It’s pure chance that he has both – just bad luck. That first night in hospital was the worst time of my life.
‘It was hell on earth and sitting their watching him sleep wondering what was going to happen.
‘I had no idea you could silently cry so much without sobbing out loud. The tears just rolled down my face.’
Amanda, who also has an 11-year-old son José, found a lump in her left breast in April, which was later diagnosed as two cancerous tumours in June.
Medics found a lump in Amanda’s left breast and she started her own cycle of chemotherapy
The schoolboy was diagnosed with two completely unrelated types of blood cancer just two weeks apart
Both her sons (pictured) were born in Spain, and she is separated from their father José, 47
She began chemotherapy in August and is half way through eight sessions, and it is expected she will have a lumpectomy operation next year.
Meanwhile Abs’ treatment is expected to last two years, and he is currently travelling back and forward from hospital up to four days a week for tests, chemo and medication.
The family live in Salto del Negro near Vélez-Málaga, Spain, where Amanda worked as a translator for expats, until she became ill.
Both her sons were born in Spain, and she is separated from their father José, 47, who is also Spanish.
Abs is treated at Hospital Materno-Infantil in Malaga, and Amanda has her chemotherapy at a hospital in Vélez-Málaga, around half an hour away.
With Amanda out of work due to her health, the family is struggling to pay for basics, such as petrol to get them to and from appointments.
Having worked in Spain since 2002 she gets free health treatment, but the country has little in the way of benefits payments, compared to the UK.
Her best friend Natalie Hancock, 50, is raising money to help them get by, with anything left over going towards a family Euro Disney trip, in years to come.
She plans to donate 20 per cent of anything raised to the volunteers at Abs’ oncology ward, who provide children with books and toys.
Determined Amanda said: ‘When you go through things like this, you come to realise how much you rely on others.
‘The kindness of people is amazing. We’re going to get through this eventually, it’s just a bit hard at the moment.
‘When I told the boys I had cancer Abs said ‘so we’re one big group then?’
‘I told him, ‘yes we are’ and he rather matter-of-factly said ‘well, I’m not going to be the only one that’s going to go through chemotherapy then’.’