Henry

Meet Henry, our inspiration.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful, handsome, healthy, wonderful, inspiring boy?  Henry is a brachial plexus ATRT survivor.  His story is eerily similar to Emmett's.  His tumor originated in his left brachial plexus and compressed the nerves to the point that he lost complete function of his left arm.  His surgeons initially though the tumor was benign but were incorrect in that assessment.  He was treated on a European protocol that includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.  Towards the end of his radiation therapy his doctors told his family they shouldn't necessarily expect Henry to be disease free at the end of the protocol and started discussing other options -- we haven't mentioned it yet, but our doctors told us the same thing a month ago.

Well, Henry is a wonderfully strong boy who surprised everyone with how well his body responded to treatment.  His tumor had an amazing response to his initial chemotherapy, and when they went in for surgery there was nothing left to remove!  He made it through radiation and another six weeks of chemotherapy just fine and has been disease free since his treatment concluded in October 2010.  After treatment ended his left arm continued gaining strength, and six months later he was back to full function!  How exciting is that!

 

 

We are so inspired and filled with hope by Henry's story.  It's been such a blessing to be in contact with his family and be lifted by their story.  We pray that Emmett will likewise have the opportunity to inspire other cancer fighters with his story one day...and we hope that one day he'll get to meet his hero Henry!

What a touching message from a most adorable Brit!