leukemia It is one of the deadliest cancers and is extremely difficult to diagnose in the early stages, as the symptoms are often very generalized. A type of blood cancer that mostly affects children, leukemia forms in the body’s blood-forming tissues, including the bone marrow and lymphatic system.

British boy Vinny Wicks, now seven, was diagnosed with cancer last year. After months of his treatment, which included chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the young boy is now looking forward to a peaceful festive time at home and all will be well in 2025 when the treatment finally ends.

Vinnie’s parents, Harriet and Matthew, explain the signs their son was sick and how they received the diagnosis that was crucial to Vinnie’s speedy recovery.

Early symptoms of leukemia in Vinnie

According to Harriet, one of the first symptoms she noticed was that Vinnie was beginning to lose his appetite. He said the child would return from school with a full lunchbox, which doctors initially said could be caused by the flu. However, despite the doctors being dismissive, red spots began to appear all over Harriet’s body and after some tests, they discovered that 65 percent of the cells in Vinnie’s body were leukemic.

“We’ve tried to make her life as normal as possible, but when something happens to your child, it’s really hard. This Christmas, we grew up with a tree with the most incredible neon light displays, and We’ve booked every single Christmas experience we can,” Harriet told The Sun.

Another important red flag of Winnie’s leukemia was changes in her habits, especially her sleeping patterns. “He was always awake at night and in the last school session, I noticed that he had started sleeping through the night, which was not normal. He stopped eating anything and got cold and this continued for about three months ,” He said.

“Then after a summer camp, he came back and he felt terrible. He hadn’t eaten anything out of his lunch box. Then he started vomiting and the doctors thought it was tonsillitis,” Harriet said. “But after four days of leave, his father, he could barely walk, he would sleep from time to time and would not eat.”

Vinny’s platelet count was 12

Vinny was diagnosed with leukemia in August 2023 after doctors discovered that his complete blood count was lower than normal. His platelet level was 12, normal levels are usually between 500 and 700.

After weeks of blood transfusions and bone marrow samples, doctors administered chemotherapy to reduce the leukemic cell count. However, once he suffered anaphylactic shock from a medicine. But gradually Vinni recovered.

How does leukemia develop,

According to experts, leukemia starts in the bone marrow – the soft, spongy tissue in the inner cavity of your bones, where your body’s blood cells are made. Blood cells go through several stages before reaching their fully mature form. Mature, normal blood cells include:

• red blood cells
• white blood cells
• platelets

These cells begin as hematopoietic stem cells, which develop into either myeloid or lymphoid cells. And so, when one of the developing blood cells starts to grow out of control you can get leukemia.

Other Symptoms and signs of leukemia

Doctors say common signs and symptoms of leukemia include:

• fatigue and tiredness
• fever and night sweats
• frequent infections
• breathlessness
• unexplained weight loss
• bone and joint pain
• lymph node swelling
• bruising and bleeding easily

Get the latest news live on Times Now with breaking news and top headlines from around the world.