Tyler's Disney Dream

Hi my name is Kelly im Tyler's auntie, me and my sister Tyler's mom are going to do a sponsered head shave in July 2025 to try and raise some funds to make his dream come true.

Tyler was diagnosed with T cell ALL in october 2024 while living in portugal here is the story.

Me (Stacey – Tyler’s mom) and my sister Kelly are braving the shave for my son

Tyler who is the bravest boy I know, he is our WARRIOR and below is the reason

why and you will all agree! We’re raising money for Tyler to have the ultimate trip of

lifetime and anything else he possibly wants. He is the bravest, strongest and most

courageous boy I have ever known and is going through one of the worst things

imaginable to anyone let alone a child.

So the back story....

My beautiful boy Tyler is 11 years old and was in perfect health, living in Portugal.

Celebrated his birthday on the 5

th September 2024 with a party. One last hurrah to

end the summer before starting a new school year. By the middle of September, he

started going off his food which isn’t like Tyler. Then the last week in September the

sickness started followed by up and down temperatures. Took him to see the doctor

and was told it was viral, and it had to run its course and just give Tyler paracetamol

for the fever. Few days later I took him back to the doctor as I thought this was more

than viral and again the same answer.

A week later he just got worse, sleeping lots, still not really eating, still having high

temps, my mother’s instinct kicked in that something wasn’t right. He woke up with

yellow eyes and body and a rash had formed on his back. Took him straight to

another clinic, on the way up his legs gave way and I had to carry him in, they took

one look and sent us to the A&E. Within minutes of getting there he was triaged and

took him straight through, I walked in to see 6 nurse’s all trying to get canula’s in,

then a blur of lots of doctors and nurses running around, Tyler being taken for CT

Scan and a ultrasound. Roll on 2 hours later a doctor for transport turned up and

pulled me aside, this is when I received the worst news of my life....

October 9

th will be a date I will never ever forget....the day our world shattered. Tyler

has Leukaemia and he was critical, they were taking him to another hospital in the

Algarve for ICU. Once there while Tyler slept I spent the night trying to process

everything. By midnight a doctor told me that they were transferring him to the

Oncology Hospital in Lisbon nearly 3 hours away at 9am. I couldn’t be with him in

transport, so me and his father had to drive up separately. This was the longest 3

hours of my life, crying the whole way, thinking why our beautiful sweet little boy.

Once we arrived in Lisbon we were taken aside by the doctor and were told his

diagnosis. Tyler has T Cell ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia). He was incredibly

poorly with cells in his blood showing nearly 1 million cells, 100% in his bone marrow

and showing 100% in his spinal aspirate (CNS). During this time there was fluid

surrounding Tyler’s whole body including around his heart and lungs which was

concerning so straight back to ICU we went, this is where he stayed for 10 days,

hooked up to a dialysis machine to drain the fluid and a ventilator due to the fluid

around his heart and lungs. He was then transferred back to the Oncology Hospital

after 10 days, then not much time after we went back to ICU due to the fluid still not

leaving. So not only was he dealing with the Leukaemia that was everywhere in him

he was also fighting the fluid which had baffled them. To being told he would need a

Bone Marrow Transplant. The doctors mentioned they hadn’t come across a case as

severe as Tyler’s before and it's very aggressive. He received 6 rounds of

chemotherapy from October 2024 to end of February 2025 in Portugal to where they

got it under control and wasn’t showing in his Spinal taps anymore and bone marrow

was showing a low reading.

In January myself, his dad Keith and his brother Ryley all got tested to see if any of

us matched. WE DIDN’T! Devastated doesn’t even come close to what we felt, so

now had to go to the international donor registry. At this point also Tyler lost the

vision in his eyes! Bam.... another thing to deal with and process. Chemo seemed to

help and by the end of a 6-day treatment his vision would return. During this time, we

had to get him well enough to go back to UK to continue treatment and transplant.

In March 2025 we finally got the call that all his results were good, and he was finally

well enough to travel home, Birmingham called they had found him some potential

matches! NO WORDS FOR HOW WE FELT!

Brings us to March 2025, arrived to Birmingham Children’s Hospital 12th March 2025,

we were in for 4 weeks for a round of intense chemotherapy and recovery to which

this got his bone marrow to the level he needed to be for transplant. Required was

0.01% or below. We got the result, and it was 0.009% so he reached the goal.

1

ST April 2025 Tyler started 9 days of Radiation Therapy on his head and eyes as

when the cancer cells had infiltrated his Central Nervous System it infiltrated his

optic nerve which then from January 2025 affected his vision on and off to March

completely losing without getting better, this was due to retinal detachment from the

build-up of fluid behind his eye. He has had surgery to drain the fluid and with

radiation they are confident that his retina’s will reattach but what his vision will be

like afterwards.... we will have to give it time and wait and see.

So, this brings me to where we are now... 7

th April 2025, currently on his second

week of radiation to kill all of Tyler’s cells ready for TRANSPLANT DAY on 16th

APRIL 2025!! Then that’s when the next worry starts, all the usual complications that

can happen after transplant from rejection to infections. So, our worry continues and

will everyday while were getting him through this, but this is what doctors say is

what’s needed to get Tyler cured.

He has spent since 9

th October 2024, in hospitals fighting this awful disease, not

being able to go anywhere, see anyone, being most of this in isolation he deserves

the world! He still has a few months to go been in hospital but when he is well

enough, we want Tyler to have the best time ever, celebrating what he has gone

through, he is the strongest boy, who hasn’t got upset through everything he has

gone through and will be going through. He’s mentioned to go to Disney World

Florida so that’s the plan, to give Tyler the best time of his life once he is through

this. Our little WARRIOR, we are so incredibly proud of him, he deserves the best

time.