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Photo from The Institute of Cancer Research/LinkedIn

Sep 10, 2024, 13:49

The Institute of Cancer Research – Lucas’ Legacy to help fund research into childhood brain tumours

The Institute of Cancer Research shared on LinkedIn:

“‘I’m so sorry Lucas that I couldn’t protect you. My heart is completely drowned’

The Williams family share their heart-breaking story of losing their son Lucas, aged just 6 years old, to a brain tumour. On what would have been Lucas’s 16th birthday, we remember and honour his memory.

‘Lucas was our only child. He was the centre of our world. But then he suddenly started to feel unwell. One evening in May 2015, we took Lucas to A&E and they arranged an MRI scan for the following day. And this was also the day that we found out Lucas had a brain tumour.

‘We started chemotherapy, armed with total hope and belief. But drips of information: the tumour was ‘behaving’ differently. The latest scan ‘wasn’t very good’. That’s when the consultant radiologist told us the unthinkable. That Lucas wouldn’t survive. I remember saying ‘but I can’t live without him’. As if that mattered enough to change it. On Friday 7 August at 4.15am, Lucas died in my arms, four weeks before his seventh birthday.

Jo and her husband, Andrew, launched Lucas’ Legacy to help fund research into childhood brain tumours.

‘A huge amount of research has been made possible because of the money we’ve raised, and it means that Professor Chris Jones and his team at the ICR have been able to gain a better understanding of what drives these cancers and turn this knowledge into potential new treatments.

Read the touching Williams’s story in full and donate to help find new and more effective treatments in Lucas’ name.”

The Institute of Cancer Research - Lucas’ Legacy to help fund research into childhood brain tumours