AHMED’S JOURNEY Towards a hopeful future By Great Ormond Street Hospital
Ahmed was an active little boy who enjoyed playing football, taking the centre forward position in his school football team. At the beginning of 2012, Ahmed started to feel more tired than usual, and found he was having difficulty moving and keeping his energy up. He developed a fever and swollen tonsils, and was eventually taken to his local hospital in Kuwait. At first, doctors thought he might have an underactive thyroid, but further 84
tests revealed the devastating news that he had leukaemia. A low dose of chemotherapy was immediately started while Ahmed waited for arrangements to be made for his transfer to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the world’s leading centres for treating sick children in London, is recognised as one of the few truly world-class hospitals for children. As a global leader, GOSH has top clinical and research
experts working every day to find new and better ways to treat children. While breakthroughs and medical expertise are essential to the treatment of patients, GOSH also places great emphasis on the support and care provided for children by nurturing an open and supportive atmosphere, ensuring that both parents and patients are wellinformed and closely involved in the treatment process. Children receive the highest standards of care and attention from the expert team of medical and support staff during their stay at GOSH and are always treated with respect, trust, concern and openness. Ahmed arrived at GOSH as a brave young boy facing a difficult journey ahead of him. He started chemotherapy again straight away, but unfortunately subsequent tests showed that the cancer was resistant to the treatment and therefore the disease was not abating. The decision was taken for Ahmed to undergo a bone marrow transplant, which would mean finding a suitable donor who could provide matching healthy bone marrow stem cells to replace Ahmed’s damaged bone marrow. Luckily, a suitable match was found quickly and Ahmed started treatment in July. The treatment consisted of high dose chemotherapy drugs which wiped out the functioning bone marrow, including the blood stem cells within the bone marrow, in order to eradicate the underlying disease. The donor’s bone marrow was then transplanted into Ahmed, replacing all his unhealthy cells with healthy cells. Ahmed said: “I like all the nurses and the patient advocates; they are friendly and make me laugh. Everyone’s been nice to me here, but I miss my family, especially my brother Mohammed. While he was visiting me here we used to walk down to the London Eye, and I took pictures of Big Ben. I think I will want to come back to London when I am older. “In the hospital I’ve made friends with another boy on the ward and my nurse, Michael, who plays football with me in my hospital room. He’s helping me to train so that when I return to Kuwait, I can rejoin my school sports club and start playing football again.” Claudia Tomlin Butterfly, Ward Manager, said: “Rehabilitation is equally as important to patients as treatment. We try to maintain normality where possible for all patients, which helps their recovery and keeps them in touch with activities they like doing. In Ahmed’s case, he loved football, so it was important that Ahmed was able to kick and play around with a ball on the ward. He would never have been allowed to play football outside as it would have meant mixing