'Brave and amazing little boy': Sussex two-year-old beats rare form of cancer
A Sussex family were devastated and feared the worst when their toddler son became unwell and was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
But now – after undergoing gruelling treatments little Stanley Webb is cancer-free and is being hailed a ‘brave and utterly amazing little boy.’
And his mum Dani is hoping that sharing what happened to Stanley will help other families facing similar ordeals.
Stanley first became ill in November last year but was sent away three times from Worthing Hospital to his home in Billingshurst when his family were told he had a viral infection.
But mum Dani rushed him back a fourth time when he began struggling to breathe. It was discovered that both Stanley’s lungs had collapsed and he was transferred to Southampton Hospital – and Dani and Stanley’s dad Toby were told he might not survive.
“Our amazing strong boy did make it,” said Dani. “He endured a six hour operation removing cysts from his lungs.” He was in intensive care but got stronger day by day. He spent his second birthday in Southampton before being sent home on the way to recovery.
But worse was to come. Tests on the cysts revealed Stanley had a seriously rare childhood cancer – Pleuropulmonary blastoma. Stanley had a central line put in his chest and started chemotherapy.
He had six cycles of intense chemo. “Unfortunately, it made Stanley seriously ill and he was admitted to hospital with every cycle and underwent blood and platelet transfusions – a lot for a two-year-old’s body to take, the strongest bravest most amazing little boy you would ever meet,” said Dani.
"We nearly lost our son once, and some days we felt we were close to it again … myself, my husband and our other son Edward wouldn’t have got through any of it if Stanley wasn’t the most strong, brave, utterly amazing little boy he is. We should have been getting him through this but in fact he got us through every bit of it. He is our champion, our strong lion.”
Stanley finished his treatment in May and had scans that revealed: ‘no cancer present’… “words we still to this day say out loud to believe because the odds were against Stanley.
"He had done it, he had beaten this rare cancer, he had beaten all the odds, he had beaten everything that had been thrown his way at only two years of age.”
Now, months later, said Dani, “we are still filtering back into normal life, but I don’t think anything will ever be normal again or we will ever get over this.
“What we have all learnt from this, not only is our son made of something out of this world but there are so many children like Stanley who haven’t lived yet and get this terrible disease and there isn’t a lot of awareness of it. Stanley’s was so rare we had to get help from America and we wouldn’t have beaten this without their guidance."
She said a lot of people think that such things will never happen to them “but unfortunately it does. So I wanted to share Stanley’s story for something positive for once.”
Tests showed that Stanley had a gene called Dicer1 which is thought to be the cause of his rare cancer. Now Dani and Stanley’s brother Edward have also been told they also share the gene. “So lots of screening for the future for all three of us,” said Dani. “It’s all so new and this is another thing that needs more awareness – awareness and knowledge is absolute key.”