Lucca’s fight against Medulloblastoma

Our story is about the strongest and bravest person we know, our son  Lucca, age 10 

On Saturday  the 31st August our world came crashing down around us and we received the heartbreaking news that our gorgeous 10 year old son, Lucca had a brain tumour.  

Lucca had started with intermittent headaches 2 weeks earlier. As he wears glasses we took him to his optician to have his eyes checked but his eyes were healthy.
We took him to the doctors and they diagnosed blocked sinuses and advised to take anti allergy tablets along with Calpol.  
On Friday the 30th  Lucca started with a headache that would not go, I was sure that this was something more than blocked sinuses so we took him to the local A&E dept.
He was referred to another local hospital who had a children’s ward, they monitored him and the next day arranged for a CT scan.
This was when, as a family,  our world fell apart.
We were told that Lucca had a brain tumour and he would be transferred to Manchester Children’s hospital straight away for further treatment and an MRI scan.

The staff  there were amazing and Lucca was transferred to a neurological children’s ward. We were told that the operation to remove the tumour would happen on the Tuesday.  
The operation went ahead as planned but lasted far longer than expected due to complications with the tumour.  Unfortunately the tumour  could not be removed fully, there is still a small part of the tumour wrapped around the  fourth ventricle. The surgeons decided that trying to remove it from this part of the brain would be highly detrimental to Lucca’s health in the long run.
So we now know that Lucca has Medulloblastoma. 
He will need further treatment of radiation and chemotherapy to fight this hateful disease. Lucca has been put forward for Proton Beam Therapy which is an amazing treatment, we have a treatment centre in Manchester however we have been told that there is also a possibility that we will have to travel to Germany to receive the treatment.  This is a 6 week intensive course of treatment and Lucca will then need chemotherapy following this. If we do have to travel to Germany we will both be unable to work during this time which leaves us in a terrible situation not only financially but emotionally. We would go anywhere to help our son but in doing this we will be separated from our other children and Lucca from his siblings  during this time.
 Throughout all of this it has been Lucca that has kept us strong, he has fought  like a warrior and without complaint or loosing his lovely sweet demeanour.
 We are writing this with very heavy hearts, neither of us want to do this but the strain this is going to have on our family will be immense emotionally and financially.
We have 3 other children at home, Antonia, Reuben & Roman

 Our main source of income was from Simon, who the day before Lucca was admitted to hospital left his job to start building his own company. This has now not been possible and we find ourselves in a position that we never before  imagined and for the sake of our children we have to put our pride away and we have to admit that we need help.

We need help financially which is something neither of us feel comfortable asking for.
Like everyone we have rent & bills to pay and without a constant flow of income coming in we will face the unthinkable.

We have amazing family that have been helping and they  take care of our other children whilst we are with  Lucca,  but equally they have their own families to support financially. 

 There is never an easy way to ask for money but we  thank you for reading our story