James THE WBC CHAMP Lewis

James was diagnosed with scoliosis in 2019 after showing signs of deterioration for 2 years it got to March 2021 when James woke up and lost all function and mobility we called an ambulance and was taken to our local where an mri was done he was then rushed to kings college hospital where we was told he had a benign tumour covering the whole of his spinal cord which had a severe bleed and cysts all along it which were compressing against his nerves , he underwent emergency surgery in which we was told he would never walk again and possibly not regain any of his bodily functions (bowel/bladder).

After 6 weeks in king and having intense rehabilitation he learnt to walk and manage his functions as best as he could , we was discharged and had a programme in place to help James in the future this consisted of hospital appointments weekly and a long stay in Stoke mandeville spinal rehabilitation centre and starting chemotherapy to reduce growth on the tumour , in October James had to undergo another surgery as the fluid wasn’t travelling around his spine properly where they inserted a shunt, our stay in kings had a huge impact on finances as dad is self employed and mum was heavily pregnant at the time .

After all of this and 6 months of chemotherapy James woke on on his birthday 20/05 in severe pain and unable to walk we took him to our local and another mri was done , we was then taken back to kings college hospital to have been told that there had been growth on his tumour and they needed to operate quite quickly to remove as much of the tumour as possible on Monday james underwent a 13.5 hour surgery and is now in critical care recovering .

We have been told that his recovery will be a minimum of 2 months depending on how well he responds to more physio and intense rehabilitation and to continue chemotherapy at a later date.

The surgeons have said that everything they did in theatre went well and was successful however in 6 months to a years time

Depending on James’s recovery they will need to go back in and remove more so another surgery in the near future is certain along with a spinal fusion for his scoliosis which is currently at 61 degrees so needs correcting urgently .

James has a very long road ahead of him and will potentially need additional aids and support at home. Mum and Dad also have a 7year old and a 11 month old to care for, dad will be unable to work now for the next 2 months possibly longer, as you can imagine there is a lot of stress and worry on the family and finances shouldn’t have to be one of them. Please pray for James and keep him in your thoughts . Any donations is greatly appreciated and all money raised will go to James and his family for whatever is needed.

Thank you for reading!