Josh vs Osteosarcoma - The Fight Begins !

This is my nephew, Joshua Smith.  Josh is the only boy in a family with three sisters, he is a typical cheeky 14 year old with an incredibly dry sense of humour and an even better outlook on life. Unfortunately this is where the story changes for him..................A week or so before Christmas 2019, Josh had a knock whilst playing rugby for his local team. He complained his arm hurt a bit but he said he was fine, took painkillers and rested. On New Years Day 2020 Josh told his mum that his arm was hurting more, so they went to the out of hours doctors surgery for an emergency appointment. After an x-ray and other tests, the next day Josh was told to go to see a top consultant at Newcastle’s RVI hospital on Monday the 6th of January. Two days later after numerous tests and a biopsy, the family hear the devastating news that Josh has osteosarcoma in his right shoulder. Josh had to go for further tests and was admitted to the teenage cancer unit at the RVI on the 13th January 2020, to start chemotherapy on Wednesday 15th. At this point Josh and his family are told that for the next 10 weeks he will be a patient of the teenage cancer unit to receive chemotherapy treatment. At the end of which he will have an operation to remove the tumour with the best outcome being the cancer removal and limb salvage, followed by further extensive chemotherapy treatment.Unfortunately things are worse than originally believed and on Tuesday 14th January the family were told that in addition to the aggressive cancer in his arm, it has also spread throughout his body to multiple sites.It’s believed that Josh’s cancer started growing about 2 months ago and within the last 2 weeks Josh’s world, life and future have been devastated. For Josh and the rest of his family, his twin sister Libby, his younger sisters Elena (7) and Philippa (4), his mum Linzi, dad Jeff, his grandma’s and grandad, uncle, cousins and friends, life will never be the same again. Josh’s mum works very hard and in fact was due to start a new and demanding job role within the NHS on the 6th Jan, but this hasn’t been possible due to the devastating news. She is currently using up holidays owed to her, but at this stage it is unknown if she will be able to return to work at all and if so, in what capacity. I’m setting up this page to raise funds in order to help this amazing family be able to make the time they all have together memorable. In addition I hope to help relieve the financial strain for Josh and his family on the extremely difficult journey they have ahead of them.I also hope this fundraising will help to supplement the income for his mum to take the necessary time off work to be with Josh and his sisters, and to make Josh as comfortable as he can be when he is well enough to visit their family home. Thank you for taking the time to read about Josh’s life changing story. No one could believe how quickly things have progressed for him and his family. I humbly ask you to pray for my nephew Josh and let’s share his story with the world. On behalf of Josh and his family, thank you in advance for all of your kind donations, support and together let’s make Josh’s fight our fight ! #4josh