Ryan was given 48 hours to live
Ryan was 14 years when he was first diagnosed with NK/T-cell lymphoma. His diagnosis came in August 2016 and, by that point, Ryan was too poorly to even begin treatment. He was admitted to the Teenage Cancer Trust Unit in Cardiff to begin nasogastric feeding and IV steroids to attempt to get him strong enough to begin treatment.
He then had a PEG feeding tube fitted which ruptured his stomach and he was given 48 hours to live with sepsis and peritonitis. He pulled through and finally began a gruelling nine months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment.
Ryan managed a few weeks here and there out of hospital, resting at home between cycles. But he did not attend a single day of schooling in what should have been Year 10, the first year of GCSEs.