FRANKIE WAKEFIELD-JONES

Hi

My name is Christine and I am raising funds for my Great Nephew Frankie. These funds will be used to support Frankie and his Mum (Megan Jones) as Frankie battles his fight against cancer. Please join us in our fund raising efforts to ensure that Frankie continues to enjoy his life whilst undergoing his treatment.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story about my Great Nephew Frankie. Frankie is 6 years old, loves anything sporty particularly football closely followed by cricket. He loves to dance and sing and will always be one of the first up on a dance floor. He is obsessed with superhero’s, his favorite being Spiderman. He is an adventurous, outgoing happy little boy who is the picture of health, however Frankie has recently been diagnosed with Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma

Frankie has grown up in Newhaven and is well known throughout the town. On hearing the news about Frankie, Newhaven Football Club (Mini Dockers) where Frankie has attended training have started the ball rolling to raise funds to help support Frankie and his Mum financially due to Megan having to have time off work to look after Frankie. They have set their first fund raising event for the 20 October 2024 to conduct a Super Walk dressed as Superheroes from Eastbourne Pier to Brighton Pier for our own little Superhero Frankie.

Frankie will be receiving treatment which will impact on both his and his Mum’s life. He will have to attend hospital for six rounds of chemotherapy 3 weeks apart on a 4-day cycle as an outpatient at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London and at The Royal Alexander Hospital in Brighton. This involves 1 day in hospital where the chemotherapy will be given through a PICC line and then 3 days of Oral Medication at home. The treatment begins this week with a general anesthetic to insert the PICC line, with the chemotherapy beginning on Friday the 4th of October 2024.

Frankie’s story began at the age of three when his Mum found a found a lump in his left groin. Frankie was taken to his GP which led to initial investigations being conducted at Brighton Children’s Hospital. Following these tests a referral to St George’s Hospital in London was made where he saw a consultant. It was decided that due to his age, they felt it would be best to remove the lump. The removed lump was biopsied, and the results were that it was an overactive lymph node. The medical team involved in Frankie’s care decided that they would monitor him every 6 months.

Fast forward to January 2024, on a visit to his Doctor in Brighton, his lumps were examined and Dr Gilbert asked for an ultrasound to be conducted. The Sonographer explained to Megan that the lump in his right groin had increased in size since the scan done 6 months earlier. All the results were sent to Dr Gilbert who along with other medical professionals decided to wait for another 3 months before repeating the ultrasound. In April 2024 Frankie returned to Brighton Children’s Hospital where he had further blood tests, a chest x-ray, and an ultrasound. His bloods and x-ray were all clear and the good news was that the lump had not increased since the scan in January 2024. Dr Gilbert once again said she would see Frankie in six months’ time. In July 2024 Megan noticed that the lump in his right groin had increased in size, she called the hospital and received an appointment for mid-August 2024 for Frankie to see Dr Gilbert. Following checks Dr Gilbert agreed that the lump had grown, she then asked for blood tests, a chest x-ray, and another ultrasound. Frankie had to wait a week for this to be done, the results were all fine however the Sonographer said that the lump had grown larger than they would like, and it now looked abnormal.

Frankie was referred to The Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton for further investigations. Once Frankie had been examined by the Consultant at The Royal Marsden it was decided that the lump would be removed so that a biopsy could be conducted. The waiting game then began, a week later Megan received a call from the Consultant with the results of the biopsy. Throughout that week we all lived by the saying No News is Good News, however this was not the case. The initial results showed that Frankie had Slow Growing Hodgkin Disease, which meant Cancer! How could our energetic, fun-loving little boy have Cancer? I can only imagine the fear that Megan felt on hearing this diagnosis, I felt sick. An appointment was made for him to return to The Royal Marsden for a PET Scan in the hope that by removing the lump it would show that they had caught it in time. 5 days later Megan received a further call with yet more upsetting news that the disease had spread to the lymph nodes in his stomach, his spleen, his armpits, and there was still some present where the lump had been removed. Following the PET Scan the Diagnosis was now Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma. Still the dreaded C word however the Consultant was quick to reassure Megan that this type of Cancer was very treatable and curable. This strain is exceedingly rare, slow growing and sufferers have no other symptoms apart from raised Lymph Nodes. On the outside our boy remains perfect but inside is a different story.