Boy whose cancer was half the size of a lung takes part in genetics trial

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “By the time we got to, I think it was around March or April 2021, he was getting them every two weeks … just really knocked out by something that didn’t seem to have any other symptoms than a low-grade fever.” Mrs Pessoa de Araujo took Eddie to the GP, where tests showed nothing abnormal. “To this day, that feeling of just free-falling – you don’t ever forget it.” Medics at Chelsea and Westminster told the family they could not admit Eddie and that he would need specialist treatment “because of the level of seriousness of the mass on his chest,” Mrs Pessoa de Araujo said. Mrs Pessoa de Araujo said: “Our consultant said the number one question parents ask is ‘what’s the prognosis for my child?’ “And the second question parents ask if they have a second child is ‘what does this mean for my second child?’ “For us, the genome sequencing ticked both of those boxes. “So, we obviously found it incredibly comforting at that point to have that piece of information.” Mrs Pessoa de Araujo said of the diagnosis: “I always say that having a child with a cancer diagnosis feels like you’ve been standing on a trapdoor all these years without knowing.