Archie’s Journey

08/04/2026

🇮🇹☺️

03/05/2025

Recovery mode 🏖

Surgery for removal of the shunt went fine, so there's no more unnecessary plastic hanging about inside Archies body 🙌🏻

In standard Archie form, we had a call during surgery asking to come and see them, as Archie was OK but still in surgery and the surgeons wanted to have a conversation 🥴

All turned out to be ok, but another unexpected procedure was needed which would add a couple of extra scars, so we had to make a decision on whether to just go ahead and explain later, or opt to come back at a later date for a 2nd day of surgery.

We opted to go ahead and just explain the violation after 🤞🏻

The boys joined their first sports club, which they had put off until Archie felt comfortable and strong, starting with the village cricket team last week. Archie got to rest up and watch Henry do his thing this morning 🏏💪🏻

02/05/2025

Waiting for surgery and getting some touch-typing practice in ⌨️✌🏻

Archie will be going into surgery this afternoon to finally have his denver shunt removed.

He's had the shunt under his skin (a long prominent plastic tube that connects near his belly to the artery in his neck) since his kidney was removed a few years back. His lymph node was nicked during surgery and the shunt was put in to drain the fluid into his blood stream until everything healed.

Leaving anything plastic inside Archies body will always be a long term potential risk for infection, so we've decided it's best to get it out, especially now that he is stronger and finished treatment 💪🏻

We have a hungry boy, but he's less nervous about the cannula now as he's allowed to have strawberry gas to get him to sleep before they insert it today! 🍓🫅🏼

30/04/2025

What an experience again!

Fundraising target hit 🥳

This years plan was to take it easy and soak up the atmosphere, and the sun made sure of that plan 🥵

Being able to slow down and take proper time to stop and chat to Archie and Henry a few times along the way (and get massive hugs) was a nice excuse to have a rest and create solid memories.

Last year the aim was to finish with a good time, so just a quick hug and high five at one stop and then completely missing them on the others as I was in the zone getting through the pain!

On sunday they were both rushing me to get back running and shoving treats in my face on the first stop at mile 15. After i explained this year there was a change of plan and i was enjoying talking to them, they relaxed and let me hang about a bit longer 😅 A lovely little boost each time 🥰

Last year was an emotional one with a lot of cramps and pushing through barriers, being the first fundraising challenge since Archie finished treatment. This year was a hot and sweaty slog of a celebration. Both were amazing in their own ways!

To top it off, we bumped into Archie's consultant at the finish, who we didnt realise was running the marathon for the same charity 💪🏻

It was a fitting end to a great day. To go through all the emotions of a marathon for such an important charity, to then see the man who has been there from the start of Archies journey. He's been through every up and down, helping us make important decisions and pushing for medical trials to be accessed, always with love and care towards Archie and us 🫶🏻

A great man and a lovely end to a fantastic day! 🥳

23/03/2025

Happy with the new hair 🥳😍

Archie's hair has always been a bit of a subject after cycling between red, curly, bald, blonde, straight, bald, red...

The medical trial made his hair very thin and straw-like and since finishing the treatment we noticed his hair had started to grow back a lot lighter and healthier 🥳

Most of the old hair is now chopped off and he's chuffed with this all round.

Although in the grand scheme it's a minor thing, having an ng tube and no hair etc through the years has attracted some looks and words from some children and being able to cross 2 of those things off is great for his confidence now he's on the other side of the madness ☺️

Archie and Henry have both been attending art/play therapy for a number of weeks. Archie's therapist said that he is a lovely, clever boy, even relaxing and starting deep conversations about the universe 🪐

It really seems to have helped both of them, having some one on one time and being able to express themselves individually, as being a twin on its own is no doubt a lot to work with 24/7 😂

In the past 2 weeks they have both earned the 'star of the week' award in their class, so proud all round.

No doubt they'll continue to push eachothers buttons but it's nice to see progress and have lovely feedback from others that spend time with them both 💪🏻

14/03/2025

We're doing this again! 🥳🏃🤮

Please donate whatever you can to such an important charity 💙

Archie's Dad has been lucky to get a place in the London Marathon next month, running again for Children With Cancer UK.

Last year was an absolute slog and the body and mind took a beating en route to the finish line, but we reached an incredible £2400 total!

This year, shin splints and all sorts of injuries have made training extremely painful but we will 100% be powering through and getting to the finish line again! 💪🏻🫡

If anyone is able to donate to push us closer to our target, it is greatly appreciated ☺️

Thank you!

Every donation goes towards helping children and families going through the worst, and funding research into better treatment for Children with cancer.

It's fair to say that without charities like this, the medical trials and research funded and amazing people's support, Archie would likely not be here today 💙 💪🏻🫶🏻

https://2025tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/simonforchildrenwithcanceruk?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR04JQrOjif8STamplXEglEc5nIuK1Ye3EdVehZx9oOTOd5mD8dXT5prXok_aem_CMfn53DHKAvmGEpAncDL1Q

I am putting my legs and mind through the blender again and running the London marathon this year for Children with Cancer UK. After everything Archie went through, and witnessing other children and f

20/02/2025

Half-term hospital trip 🩻🩺

Hearing tests and new moulds ✔️

Pre-surgery consultation and x-rays ✔️

Cinema trip to see Dog man ✔️

Archie is finally on the surgery list to have his shunt taken out 🥳

He had a denver shunt put in after an issue during surgery to remove his kidney and tumour a few years ago. A lymph node decided to continuously push fluid into every gap around his organs for a few months, and the shunt eventually being connected allowed us to manually drain the fluid from his belly area, into an artery in his neck.

It's been long enough since that particular time, that when we mentioned to Archie about having it removed, he questioned it as he thought the shunt was one of his ribs, which slightly worried him at first! 😅

Leaving the shunt in place could be creating an unnecessary plastic place for bacteria and infections to get groovy, so it's always been the plan to remove it once he finished treatment.

The biggest risk of this surgery is his artery bleeding, but he's had a few hickman lines removed in the same way in the past.

We'll pack an overnight bag just in case, but hopefully Archie is over his usual thing of hitting every worst case scenario or creating new ones!🤞🏻😄

14/12/2024

New balls please 🏀

Archie had a check up at the hospital yesterday. It's always a strange one being back in the place we spent so much time, seeing children and parents at the beginning of their journeys.

Archie's had his ng tube out for 2 months now, and it's been a tricky job to keep his weight up after 6 years of having extra calories put in with an overnight feed every night and not having much of an appetite.

We've now got Archie some extra calorific, nutritional bits for him to drink and get his weight back up 💪🏻

In the last couple of months, the medicine that Archie has been taking for the medical trial in the US has been approved in the UK and under NHS guidelines, all children that finish front line treatment must be offered the opportunity to take the medicine for 2 years to reduce their chance of relapse and help keep the cancer from coming back.

We've had a lot of decisions to make along the way but we always felt like we had ultimately made the right choices, as this is the second trial Archie has taken part in along his journey, where the treatment has now later been approved.

There has been a bit of fate or luck along the way, being randomly allocated the effective arm of the first trial, to then being declined a place on the original trial in New York post-treatment and opting for Charlotte instead.

Being in the situation in the first place and putting the life of your child in someone else's hands is hard to roll with and accept, and without the continuing research and medical trials, it would be even harder to successfully get through.

Archie will now have a checkup every few months where he will have his wee and bloods checked for any indicators of the cancer coming back.

Our focus is now to get this guy bulking and make sure he and Henry keep being their happy selves, while Archie continues to get stronger and catch up at school 💪🏻

13/10/2024

Archie's final scans were all OK! 🥳

Anything showing up on his mibg scans hasn't changed in the 2 and a half years since completing front line UK treatment, suggesting everything inside him is stable and nothing nasty is lingering.

He has now completed the 2 year medical trial in the US, aiming to lower any chance of relapse. The longer he goes Post-treatment, the lower the chances of it coming back 🤞🏻

There have been a lot of difficult steps along this journey, and we feel that we've always made the right decisions for Archie. With the opportunity to undertake medical trials, Archie's determination and everything else along the way that happened or helped for one reason or another, he's been given the best chance to live his life 🥰

He's an amazing guy and never ceases to impress 😊

We made the long drive down to Disney, slightly later than planned due to the weather! But the boys now have a week of fun to celebrate Archie finishing his treatment 🕺

08/10/2024

A slightly eventful trip so far for Archie's last medical trial hospital visit.

Final scans tomorrow morning 🤞🏻

We had planned to visit the Carolina mountains on this trip but they were hit by Hurricane Helene a couple of weeks ago.

We are also booked in at Disney World Orlando from tomorrow for a final celebration and a halloween party but hurricane Milton entered the chat and has put that on hold!

We'll likely stay in Charlotte a bit longer and drive down to Florida a few days later than planned, after the hurricane along with all the Florida residents that have evacuated North, depending on the damage suffered.

Hopefully everyone will be safe and not too much damage is done.

Mickey can wait for a bit 😔🫡

04/09/2024

Back to school ✌🏻🥳

Archie and Henry were really excited to get back to school today 😊

We had a phonecall after from their new teacher telling us how amazing they both were on their first day back, both being super prepared to work and doing their best all day. Very proud, but let's see how long that lasts! 🤞🏻😅

Some great adventures were had over the summer holidays! We also finally gave in to fortnite this summer, so Archie has a new favourite thing 🤷🏼 He thought it was just a summer holiday fun thing so was excited when he got to have an hour on it after school 🙂

Archie has continued to put on weight and have a greatly improving appetite and adventure for new food. Now that he's hit his target weight we can hopefully prepare to get his ng tube out soon and stop his overnight feeds.

Archie's last US hospital visit is in 4 weeks time. We will be making the most of it and taking the boys to Disney after to celebrate the end of the 2 year medical trial 🥳

At every step of Archies journey, we haven't known what the future holds and try to do our best to make sure we're all happy and making the most of our time.

It's hard to imagine how it must be, having a clone of yourself around you at all times, but these are two best pals that mostly find eachother hilarious, and partly like to disagree and fight a bit 😁

Archie still does his stubborn best to annoy Henry and test his patience and Henry does his best to be emotionally damaged by it less regularly 😅 but they're both very considerate of eachother and others in their different ways.

They're turning into proper boys, with great sense of humour, not afraid to show and talk about their emotions, from happiness and countless hugs and snuggles to sadness (Archie with anger and Henry with meltdowns and tears) and talking about their worries and things they enjoy.

They're both great guys and make us very proud. It's a real treat to see them growing up, especially knowing the lengths everyone (mainly Archie) went to to make it possible. 🥰