A ‘FUNNY and courageous’ little boy passed away barely a year after receiving a shocking diagnosis.
Albie Bayliss-Watts was initially diagnosed with tonsillitis and tummy bugs when he suffered a sudden seizure and began vomiting blood.
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But just weeks later, he was diagnosed with a brain tumour so rare it could not be identified.
His death at just two years old left his two mums heartbroken – and his rare cancer has still not been named.
Prior to October 2020, Albie was a “happy and healthy baby”, mums Lauren and Hayley shared in blog for Brain Tumour Research.
After he suffered a seizure out of the blue, his worried mums took him to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where medics initially assumed the tot was suffering from tonsillitis that “had caused him to have convulsions”.
The next day, doctors told the parents that Albie was probably suffering from a type of epilepsy and referred him to a neurologist.
Albie was due to see a consultant six weeks later when he started being sick.
Initially thinking this was caused by a bug, Lauren and Hayley grew “really worried” when their baby began vomiting blood.
Back at the hospital, the mums were reassured that a sickness bug had probably caused the lining of Albie’s stomach to bleed.
But despite being given fluids and tests seeming to come back normal, the one-year-old continued to deteriorate.
At this point, doctors decided to look at Albie’s brain to explain his symptoms.
A CT scan and MRI scan revealed a mass the size of a tennis ball on the little one’s brain.
“The growth was causing so much pressure that within hours, he was undergoing emergency brain surgery,” Lauren and Hayley wrote.
They faced a “horrendous” 10-hour-wait before being told the surgery had gone to plan, as Albie’s surgeon had been able to remove 99 per cent of his tumour.
“Happy and relieved”, the mums were able to bring their little boy home just five days after the surgery.
“At just 18 months old, he was so strong and brave, it was incredible.
“We soon got our cheeky little man back and hoped we were out of the woods but sadly, it wasn’t to be.”
‘THE UNSTOPPABLE CHILD’
Christmas 2020 was Albie’s second and last ever Christmas.
Just three short weeks after surgery, on New Year’s Eve, the tot began vomiting blood once again.
An emergency scan revealed his tumour was already growing back and he would need to start emergency chemotherapy immediately.
“His tumour had not yet been named yet – all they knew was that it was an aggressive cancer and treatment needed to begin immediately,” the mums shared in a fundraiser in Albie’s name.
“Determined” little Albie settled into a routine of six-days treatment cycles, followed by 21 days of rest.
“The side effects were brutal but he would become stronger with each round,” his mums shared.
“He’d run around the ward, laughing, playing, making everyone smile and making us so proud. We called him ‘the unstoppable child’.”
The most common symptoms of a brain tumour
More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.
The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.
There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.
Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body and are more likely to return.
Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.
They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.
The nine most common symptoms are:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Feeling sick
- Being sick
- Memory problems
- Change in personality
- Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
- Vision problems
- Speech problems
If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from the ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.
Source: NHS
The tot turned two on May 18 and started an even higher dose of chemo in July that year, which left him sicker and with awful side effects.
Albie returned home in August and seemed to be doing well, giving his mums hope that he’d make a full recovery.
But they were dealt yet another blow in October 2021, when scan when scan results showed that the disease had spread to Albie’s cerebrospinal fluid and there were “areas of concern” in his spine.
The news hit Hayley and Lauren “like a ton of bricks”.
The tot had an Ommaya reservoir fitted in his head to administer chemo directly into the brain fluid.
Doctors told mums it wouldn’t cure Albie of his cancer, but they thought it would give the family extra time.
After postponing their wedding twice due to the pandemic, Hayley and Lauren finally got married, wanting to include their little boy on their special day.
We should have been getting his fifth birthday cake ready, not preparing to have more birthdays without him. No parent should have to go through this
Lauren Bayliss-Watts
On the final day of the couple’s honeymoon, Albie became very unwell.
Tests revealed that he had a bleed coming from a new brain tumour.
Three new tumours had grown in just two weeks, all of them inoperable.
“There were no further treatment options available and we were completely distraught,” the mums wrote.
‘NEVER ENDING PAIN’
Albie passed away on November 28, with Hayley and Lauren both at his side, holding his hands and signing to him.
“We cannot believe that our beautiful, funny, courageous baby has gone and coming to terms with our loss is so very hard,” they wrote.
“During his short life, Albie touched so many people’s hearts and filled our world with nothing but pure joy.”
To this day, the tot’s rare tumour has still not been identified.
Left utterly heartbroken, Albie’s parents have channelled their grief into raising awareness around brain cancer and fundraising in their baby’s name.
They formed a fundraising group named “Albie and Beyond” for the charity Brain Tumour Research.
And Lauren, now a mum to twin girls, completed a 34km ultra challenge on what would have been her son’s fifth birthday, Oxford Mail reported, helping raise close to £3,200 for Brain Tumour Research.
Lauren described the pain of Albie’s loss as “never ending”.
“We should have been getting his fifth birthday cake ready, not preparing to have more birthdays without him.
“No parent should have to go through this but because historically just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research goes on brain tumours, it is happening far too much.”
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