Brave family to celebrate Christmas this month after cancer bombshell

Parents Russell and Rachael Jeffs will celebrate Christmas later this month after their six-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. The family have shifted the festivities to November 30 as Dylan will be at Birmingham Children's Hospital for the "real" festive season.

It comes as the brave youngster was first diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, at just two. After a tough three-and-a-half years of treatment, he was given the all clear and rang the bell in April. And with hopes of a 'normal life', the family celebrated with an end-of-treatment party.

But last month, the family suffered a devastating blow as they were told his cancer had relapsed and he was now deemed high-risk. Dylan is now undergoing weekly chemotherapy and will return to the hospital over Christmas, and for as long as four months, as he awaits a stem cell transplant, pending a suitable donor.

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Russell, aged 38, and Rachael, aged 35, will have to take time out of work to care for him in hospital, along with his sister Mia - who won't be able to attend nursery as they 'isolate'. Family members have set up a GoFundMe appeal with a target of £5,000 to help pay their bills, food and fuel to and from hospital.

HGV driver Russell told BirminghamLive: "We've no option but to cope. We've got to keep going and hope his treatment is successful. Yes it's horrible, yes we feel rubbish but there's nothing I can do. We don't truly know what's going to happen, Dylan's life is in the hands of Birmingham Children's Hospital because we can't do anything for him."

"When he goes in on December 16, it's probably going to be for at least three or four months - and another 12 months to fully recover. They're trying to give him the best chance of - in so many words - survival. It's horrible to say that's even a question for my six-year-old son but unfortunately that's the reality we're in."

The family are now preparing to enjoy a pushed-forward Christmas at social worker Rachael's parents. Russell added: "It's a horrible time of year, he's expecting Santa to come. We're having to move it forward, we're having our own Christmas on November 30 to give him the best Christmas experience we can, knowing he's going to be in hospital for the actual Christmas."

"We're going to do - or try to do - Christmas as we would on December 25. So we're going to go to Rachael's parents for dinner and have Christmas dinner, obviously do presents and do Christmas as it would be."

"We're having a letter sent from Santa, we're going to speak to him and he's going to write him a letter explaining he knows he's ill and he's going to be in hospital for the real Christmas, so Santa is going to visit him early so he gets to have a Christmas as well, like all the other boys and girls that will be having it at Christmas time."

"We're trying to keep it as normal as we can for him. There's only so much we can do." Rachael is already working part-time but taking sick leave to look after Dylan following the latest diagnosis. But that will run out in February, leaving them without an income as Russell also takes time off to look after their two children.

Russell continued: "It's horrible, from a parents' point of view, there is nothing I wouldn't do to change this for him, but there is nothing I can physically do to help him in the slightest. I can't even give him my blood, my stem cells, my bone marrow because of how bodies work."

Neither mum or dad are a '10/10' transplant match for Dylan, so they will be kept as a back-up option if no suitable donors can be found. During the festive period, the search for a donor becomes increasingly difficult, added Russell.

"The hospital are actively looking for donors, but as of last week they haven't found one. They said the Christmas period changes people's positions of whether they want to get into that," he explained.

"Basically if they can't find a donor, they will have to put him on a maintenance chemotherapy - just for the Christmas and Jan/ Feb period to get us into the New Year. Then hopefully people might be a little more giving in terms of volunteering to donate."

"But even when some random member of the public decides to be a donor and donate for us, there's still no guarantee Dylan's body is going to accept that donor, and still no guarantee he's going to recover from this. We just don't know what the future holds."

He went on: "There are no words. We're in such a difficult unknown time, unfortunately our bills have still to be paid, as much as we can minimise everything in terms of not using anything, we've still got to eat and bills don't pay themselves."

"What we're going to do when that time comes I just don't know at the moment. We're still got to pay fuel to and from the hospital, and gas and electric and like now , Dylan is on steroids and he is literally eating us out of house and home."

"The food is to bulk him up for the next stages of treatment for when he might not want to eat, but everything costs money, nothing comes for free, we still have to keep buying all this food, we still have to keep putting fuel in the car to get him to hospital."

"It's crazy. And of course, because we work and we're over the quota, we can't claim Universal Credit or anything like that. They won't even look at you for 12 weeks." The GoFundMe had raised £2,840 as of Wednesday, November 13, but they hope to get to £5,000.

Russell added: "I just want to thank everybody from the bottom of their hearts for any donations, we understand times are hard for everybody with Christmas coming up, if you can't donate, just share the page and hopefully there are people out there who are in a position to donate."

Details on the GoFundMe page can be found here.

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