A young four year old boy was just fighting his way into recovery by receiving treatment from neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, when he suddenly contracted the coronavirus despite his parents extending their efforts to protect him! The family says he is now "out the other side" and finally recovering from both the coronavirus and the cancer!
Archie's story
Archie Wilks has previously developed a fever at the day unit located in Addenbrooke's Hospital over at Cambridge after starting his chemotherapy and immunotherapy when he was quickly moved to a coronavirus ward where he was then diagnosed with COVID-19 after 48 hours of waiting for the results!
Following Archie's diagnosis, Archie's twin brother Henry was suddenly taken out of school early for the family to go into a two-week self-isolation period in their home in Saffron Walden, Essex.
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The worried Simon Wilks, father of Archie, said that "We only had a community nurse visit a couple of times and some trips to the day unit where we kept away from whoever we possibly could and stayed outside to keep away from the waiting room." The father later on explained that despite their efforts, Archie was still the very first child oncology patient that had been tested positive at Addenbrooke's and even potentially in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Wilks then spent six days in what he described as the COVID-19 "man cave" with all the nurses and doctors wearing full gear upon entering. Archie was feeling tired and needed oxygen overnight for a few days but on Thursday, he was "out the other side" of the virus!
The happy family
Archie's family told supporters "Archie's definitely out the other side of the virus with no cough and no need for oxygen," through the Archie's Journey Facebook page. Mr. Wilks then praises the NHS staff saying they made them feel "at ease" during the situation.
The hospital is also going to use portable Samba II machines developed by a University of Cambridge spin-off company known as the Diagnostics For The Real World in order to reduce the waiting time for the test results to just 90 minutes.
The family all had individually been experiencing the coronavirus symptoms and were finally reunited on April 1 when the doctors themselves said that Archie was finally well enough to be safer in isolation at home.
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While Mr. Wilks and his wife care for both their twins, other people are raising and donating money in order to enable Archie to take part of the vaccine trial in the United States which could possibly reduce the chance of his cancer returning once Archie is in remission. There has already been 180,000 pounds or $224,000 USD raised.
Mr. Wilks has even said that 50% of the children who have successfully been treated for neuroblastoma will eventually relapse and of those who have relapsed, 90% will not make it. An ongoing vaccine trial is being held at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York that"will look to reduce the chance of that happening and allow us all to know we have done everything possible to give Archie the best chance at life", he added.
