Homecoming surprise for leukaemia sufferer (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Timmy Mason Trust brings homecoming surprise for leukaemia sufferer

3:00pm Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News By Laura Shack

A CIRENCESTER teenager who is battling leukaemia has been given a boost thanks to a local children’s charity.

This week 17-year-old Kieran Luce came home for the first time in seven months after undergoing a bone marrow transplant, which is his final hope of stamping out the disease.

And to make his return from Bristol Children’s Hospital as calming and clean as possible, Kate and Tim Mason, who founded the Timmy Mason Trust, employed teams to spruce-up the family’s garden and home.

The Preston couple set up the children’s charity in memory of their own son Timmy, who died after a three-year battle with cancer in October 2011, aged seven.

In just one day a gardening team from Cirencester-based Grasshoppers filled an eight-yard skip with garden waste.

Kieran’s mum Carol said she cried when she came home and saw what they had done.

"We used to mow it every week but there just hasn’t been any time since Kieran got ill. I’m just so grateful – we can use it for barbecues and Kieran can have friends over now he’s back."

The former Cirencester Deer Park student was first diagnosed in September 2010 and has been in and out of hospital since then.

Kieran said. "It’s been painful but the worst part of it all is when the doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to have kids because of the chemotherapy. I really wanted to have a family."

Mum Carol said having the house professionally cleaned by the Timmy Mason Trust had made a real difference to the family too because if Kieran got poorly it could be disastrous.

Within a fortnight of Kieran's bone marrow transplant in June he caught pneumonia while in hospital and nearly died because his immune system was so low.

"We could have lost him," Carol, 40, said. "I was taken aside by doctors and was told that he might have to go on a life support machine – it’s just been hell and that’s the only way to describe it."

Now Kieran is showing signs of a good recovery, but they are still fearful that his body might reject the donor’s bone marrow. And if that happens, they have run out of options.

"There’s nothing else they can do for him if it doesn’t work," Carol said. "But we can’t bear to think about that."

The Timmy Mason Trust is a new charity that seeks to help children with cancer and their families.

As a long-term goal, the trust hopes to purchase and run a home for terminal children.

Currently the trust can offer:

• Morale boosting gifts and days out

• Support with travel costs – to and from treatments

• Family breaks for children on treatment

To support their work and to help the trust achieve its ultimate goal of creating a sanctuary for suffering families, please donate at timmystrust.org