Callum Stone’s family is raising money for immumotherapy as he’s been told there are “no treatment options” for his inoperable cancer
A teenager’s debilitating migraine was the only symptom of terminal cancer — and now his family is raising money for immunotherapy to battle the disease that has turned their world “upside down.”
Callum Stone, 15, woke up for school this past January with a migraine so severe, he struggled to speak, his family said, according to The Daily Mail.
His mother Sarah, 41, and stepfather, Mark, 42, took him to the hospital; Callum had three seizures in the car ride over. He was admitted for a week and later discharged with anti-seizure medication, as the doctors chalked up inflammation in his brain to a viral infection.
The teen, who hails from the English city of Chelmsford, underwent more detailed scans at his follow-up appointment, when doctors discovered a large tumor in his brain — a diffuse glioma, stage 4.
The National Cancer Institute explains that for gliomas — a malignant, fast-growing type of cancer — surgery is the first line of treatment. However, in Callum’s case, surgery wouldn’t be an option, because the tumor had grown like a “cobweb.”
“Doctors would need to take away too much of the healthy cells,” Sarah told the outlet. The news, she said, was “shattering.”
“In a matter of hours, our world has just completely been thrown upside down but a few months ago, we were just a normal family,” she said. “It’s quite hard to explain something like that to a child.”
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Mark said Callum was more concerned for his family, which includes his younger siblings, William, 14, and Amelia, 7. When he was told the news, Callum “smiled and hugged us,” Marc said.
The Minecraft-loving teen completed six weeks of radiation on April 4 and is now taking chemotherapy pills. His family says he will find out on May 5 how the tumor has responded to treatment. “He’s gone from being a boy who has never been sick to taking so many different tablets and being in hospital,” said his mother.
The family has established a GoFundMe to pay for immunotherapy and other treatments abroad to give him “the best chance,” as in the UK there are “currently no other treatment options available.”
“There are times away from the kids where you didn’t think you could ever cry so hard,” Sarah said.
