Sonny’s Portacath removed

Hello, I'm Jorja and the little boy you see in the photo and who I’m going to be talking about is my gorgeous brave little cousin Sonny who is 7 years old. He is almost ready to ring the bell to end three and half years of his leukaemia battle in December. However, even though he has nearly finished chemotherapy, Sonny has another long road ahead of him to get his port removed.

For those of you who don’t know what a port is it’s short for Portacath. It is a type of central line which allows chemotherapy, antibiotics, fluids and blood transfusions to be administered straight into the body. It also enables bloods to be taken. It’s a small chamber that sits under the skin on his chest, with a tube that goes up from the chamber over his clavicle and down into his heart.

Sonny has nearly finished all of his chemotherapy treatment and will no longer need his port anymore after December. Sadly, he will be on a long waiting list for the complex surgery to have it removed. The longer it’s left in his body, the greater the risk of infection in the line, which could lead to life-threatening sepsis and the risk that it grows deeper into the tissues in his body making it more difficult to remove.

Your donation will enable my Aunty Jess to pay for this surgery to be done privately with a expert team in Cardiff and stop Sonny having to wait the 18 months from the NHS to a matter of weeks from going private giving Sonny to ring the bell in December and be truly finished with his cancer journey.

Although the port is incredible when he needed it unfortunately for Sonny this has been one of the most hardest parts of his treatment. Over the three and a half years he has had his port accessed from daily, weekly to monthly. Every time a specialist nurse needs to pierce his chest with a needle to ensure it is correctly located in the port under the skin. The trauma and distress of this repeated process causes sonny to struggle desperately, As his parents hold him down to allow his port to be accessed.

Sonny is so conscious of his port and finds it incredibly sensitive and is always worried it will be bumped or touched, he always ensure he is wearing a t-shirt so the port is hidden. Until it is removed once and for all, Sonny will still have to be seen by nurses for the port to be cleaned and flushed every 4 weeks to avoid infection. Each time is a traumatic event for Sonny, which would come to an end if the port were removed.

Not only this but if Sonny spikes a temperature as he still would have the port in he would have to be admitted into hospital for a minimum of 48hrs to be monitored incase of complications with the port, meaning for another 18months of their lives to be on hold for longer. they have all missed out on so much this last few years as it is.

Sonny is a such an incredible little boy who has been through so much at such a young age and has continued to laugh and put a smile on his face even when times can be tough for him. This is why it’s so important for sonny to have his port removed as soon as possible. Along with his parents and the rest of the family we all want this to be over, desperately. But the waiting list is about 18 months. With your donation, we will be able to pay for this to be done privately and cut this to just a few weeks.

Please help if you can. We cannot wait for our superhero Sonny to start living his life without this repeated and soon to be unnecessary distress.

Thank you for reading and please share this so we can help this long and terrifying journey be over sooner for my Aunty Jess, Uncle Ian, and their children Joel, Sonny and Lainey. Thank you x