When Charley Hemming spotted lumps on her 13-year-old son Tyler’s neck, she was concerned.
First raising the alarm with doctors in February 2025, the mum-of-four was driven to seek medical support as the lumps became increasingly ‘visible’ on his body, and all the while, he was becoming increasingly ‘fatigued.’
After initially checking him over, doctors told Charley that they suspected her son’s symptoms were those of tonsillitis.
However, blood tests told another story, revealing inconsistent results that took months to get to the bottom of.
‘The doctors initially thought it was tonsil-related, but my mum instinct just knew there was more to it,’ Charley, an NHS support worker from Gosport, Hampshire, says.
‘His blood results were erratic. They were showing that he was anaemic and there were no definitive answers.’
At the time, doctors were adamant that he ‘didn’t have leukaemia or blood cancer,’ and during the three months it took the family to receive a diagnosis, Charley took her son to see the GP three times.
But on each and every occasion, she was simply told to wait – and that Tyler would need to have more blood tests.
The situation came to a head on May 18, when the family had just returned from a ‘dream’ trip to America. Tyler had been taking part in the Youth Summit for Cheerleading in Tampa, Florida – but when he returned to the UK, he was rushed to A&E with worsening symptoms of fatigue.
The same day, a CT scan, ultrasound and X-ray revealed that the cancer was malignant, which means that the abnormal cells can spread to other parts of the body. He started chemotherapy one month later, in June.
But it would still be two months before doctors revealed that Tyler had stage four Hodgkin Lymphoma, specifically, a form of blood cancer.
Now, Tyler has cancerous lumps across his body, including on his face, nose, throat, collar bone, armpit, spleen, left shoulder blade, all of his organ entry points, and on his chest, near an entry point to his heart.
Charley says: ‘I believed it was Lymphoma, but I was very shocked when they told me it was stage four. How was it not picked up on?’
To date, Tyler has had six rounds of chemotherapy, an intense treatment which ‘wipes him out,’ as well as eight blood transfusions. Next month, he’ll also be starting the first of three rounds of radiotherapy.
‘Mentally, it’s really hard because you’re watching your 13-year-old lifeless,’ Charley adds.
‘If he’s not in hospital for treatment, he’s in because he’s catching every bug. It’s turned our world upside down. We just don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re staring into the unknown.’
Now, Tyler can’t compete as a cheerleading champion, and he’s also had to miss out on fishing trips ‘because of the bacteria.’
The family is also struggling to cope financially, as Charley is on unpaid compassionate leave – and trips to the hospital have added extra costs to their monthly outgoings.
The eldest of four, Tyler’s 10-year-old brother Kenny, eight-year-old sister Nyla, and six-year-old Aaloiah are ‘struggling to understand’ his illness.
‘He had chemo all over the summer holidays so we could hardly do anything with the kids,’ Charley says, noting that together with Tyler’s dad, 31-year-old scaffolder Joe Scott, they’re trying to keep things ‘as normal as possible’ for the children.
‘We would try to go on days out to the zoo or cinema when we could but it was really hard because we always had to take Tyler places.
‘It’s so upsetting for them because mum and dad were constantly having to leave to go to the hospital.’
In spite of it all, though, Tyler’s spirits remain high, and his mum describes him as ‘resilient and so strong.’ There are also early signs that his body is responding to the chemotherapy, as his last scan indicated non-active cancer in his abdomen.
That said, Tyler’s condition remains a source of worry for Charley, who is concerned about what the future might hold.
‘Even though they say he’s curable, there are so many risks involved. He could get cancer elsewhere or it could come back or he could have a turn with the chemo,’ she says.
‘Of the six rounds he’s had, only two of them went well, so every round is different and you never know what’s next.
‘I feel like I’m just constantly on the go. You’re trying to keep positive but you know anything could happen.’
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