Leukaemia boy's video to reassure ill children

Published on Saturday 6 June 2009 19:53

A SEVEN-year-old leukaemia patient is helping other children through their treatment by allowing his own chemotherapy to be filmed, his mother said yesterday.

Sam Sharp kept smiling throughout the video as a needle was inserted into his chest – and even turned to the camera to say: "This doesn't hurt."

The youngster, from Mildenhall, Suffolk, was one of 26 young cancer patients honoured during a day out yesterday at London Zoo, organised by Cancer Research UK and TK Maxx.

His mother Sarah said the video was now being used by district nurses to help other children being treated at the West Suffolk hospital in Bury St Edmunds.

"Sam was fantastic having this done," she said. "He smiled all the way through."

He was first diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of three and has suffered with three bouts of pneumonia and three of shingles in the last four years.

"It's been a rollercoaster," Mrs Sharp, 35, said.

"We nearly lost him. He's been through a hell of a lot. But all the way through this treatment he's been our little hero: smiling, never complaining that he's got to have all this done to him."

She said Sam knew he had "funny blood" but never stopped smiling.

Mrs Sharp added that the last few years had been "hard, very very hard" for her and her husband Lee, 39, with Sam spending "most of the three years" in hospital.

"We've had our ups and downs, and it's put a lot of pressure on our relationship," she said.

She also called for "a bit more support" for patients and their carers, but said she had received "great support" from the nurses and from Cancer Research UK.

About 1,400 children in the UK are diagnosed with cancer each year and the charity's "Together for Kids" fund has raised 3 million to help beat childhood cancers.