Archie's Story

At four and a half months old, Archie Hill was diagnosed with stage four Heptoblastoma – a rare cancer of the liver. His mum, Catherine, a mum of four, describes the treatment that followed.  

Quite soon after Archie was born, I knew something wasn’t right.

He used to scream constantly and really struggled to keep his feeds down. I kept taking him to our local GP to try and get to the bottom of things, but was told that babies get sick and do cry. Having already had three children, instinct told me that it was something much more than that.

Then one day when I was bathing Archie, I noticed a swelling on his left hand side. We took him straight to our local A&E at Stepping Hill, Stockport, half thinking that we would be sent home again. This time, though, Archie was admitted to the ward where they took his blood and booked him in for a scan the next day. It was the 28^th March 2014

That night I remember the doctor coming in and saying he had a ‘long, rocky road ahead of him.’ I didn’t know what she meant – cancer hadn’t even entered my mind, as he was being treated for reflux and lactose intolerance.

The next day he had an ultra sound scan and they found something on his liver. We were immediately transferred to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and the next few days were a whirlwind of MRI scans, blood tests, biopsies and eventually, having a hickman line fitted.

He had been diagnosed with stage four Heptoblastoma, a rare liver cancer – particularly in a baby his age. I was in total shock. It was confirmed that I hadn’t been imagining things when I believed Archie was ill, and our baby now had a long fight ahead of him.

The first line of treatment was three gruelling rounds of chemotherapy. It was heart-breaking to see our baby lose his smiles due to the side effects of such strong treatment. There was a mixture of anger that his condition hadn’t been identified earlier and pure admiration at how well he handled everything he had to deal with.

Once the chemotherapy was complete, Archie had a pre-transplant assessment in Leeds. Not long after, in the early hours of the 21^st June, we received a call from the transplant coordinator to say a liver had become available. After being on the transplant list for just five days, he received his new liver in the regional transplant unit in Leeds.

After Archie’s transplant, we spent three weeks in Leeds waiting for his new liver to settle in and learning about his medication regime. This included anti-rejection medication, as well as a number of other medications that he’ll be on for life.

The effects on our family life were substantial. Archie’s dad had gone from working full time to doing the school run, working for a couple of hours, going back to school, making the tea, overseeing homework and doing the bedtime routine. Three nights per week he would bring our other three children to the hospital where we would have tea together.

Whilst we were in Leeds, our other children had to stay with family. Although we spoke to them on the phone, it was heart wrenching being separated and feeling guilty that I should be there for them.

After we were transferred back to Manchester, Archie was due to have another two rounds of chemo but it had to be cut short. This was because the chemo and the anti-rejection medication were affecting his kidney function.

Archie finally rang the end of chemo bell on 13^th August 2014, but he still has a long way to go. We have had many admissions to the hospital due to his liver taking time to settle in.

Our little boy is now 20 months old and is enjoying his time at home. Despite everything he has gone through, he has grown into a really cheeky chappy with a wicked sense of humour!

If I were to offer advice to other parents, it would be to trust your gut instinct. You know your child better than anyone else – keep pushing if you think something is wrong. Although childhood cancer is rare, it does happen to babies and children of all ages.