In isolation

Published on Monday 6 December 2010 16:03

A RARE form of cancer has left 17-year-old promising footballer Brandon Hall isolated and miserable in an adult hospital ward.

He was struck down with a germ cell tumour in his chest - an unusual cancer which normally affects an older age group and is more likely to be found in the testicles.

Surgeons removed a tumour the size of a small melon from his chest which had been pressing on his internal organs and set him on a course of chemotherapy which caused his hair to fall out and left him battling fatigue.

While he's full of praise for staff at the Western General who cared for him, the Newtongrange Juniors' left back says he felt lonely and miserable in a ward surrounded by older men.

"The ward was just full of old men and I had no-one to talk to. If there had been a TCT unit I could have played pool or just had someone to talk to who was the same age as me."