Philip's story

A Life Lived to the Full

In May 2008, 9-year-old Philip sadly died having been diagnosed with astrocytoma, a brain tumour, in December 2007. His parents Sally and Bill would like us to share his story – to celebrate his life and to thank the CLIC Sargent care professionals who helped Philip through his challenging journey.

“Philip was sent home from school because he was sick and felt dizzy,” said Sally, his mum. Things didn’t get better in spite of several visits to the GP. “I thought maybe Philip needed his eyes testing, and Bill took him to the optician”.

Bill told us: “Philip was reading the letters out, and the optician said ‘it’s not right, let’s try that again’. He shone a torch into Philip’s eye and said the pressure was wrong but that he didn’t know why.” The optician told Bill to take Philip to the children’s hospital straightaway.

The family sat in A&E for a couple of agonising hours, just waiting. Philip had a CT scan, then an MRI scan. Then they heard the shocking news that Philip had a brain tumour.

The operation took seven long hours. Sally and Bill could only sit and wait. Sally said: “All these things were running through our minds ‘would he be able to walk, talk, or even move?’” But when Philip came round he began winding up the theatre staff. “That was just like Philip, always joking around and making people laugh,” recalled Bill.

Philip was so determined to get home for Christmas, he was walking just a day after the operation. But it was clear that he had problems with mobility on his right hand side. So as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, he also started seeing a CLIC Sargent Community Play Specialist, Naomi, who helped him to regain movement.

“Naomi visited us at home, and Philip really looked forward to it. One day he was just so sick and tired but was determined to stay awake. But he just couldn’t and was heartbroken that he’d missed her”, Sally told us.

Naomi used play dough to get Philip to manipulate his hand, rolling and squashing it into shapes. Another activity was putting the dough inside a toy doll, and pressing down a lever so that ‘hair’ would grow out of the toy’s head. Philip then used scissors to ‘cut the hair’, encouraging him to use his hand again.

“Naomi and Philip just clicked, and got on really well. We’d have loved her to come everyday because Philip really lit up when she visited. If he was too tired to do the exercises, Naomi would just chat or play a game with him. Everyone felt like they knew Naomi as Philip was always talking about her.” Sally said.

CLIC Sargent Play Specialist Naomi explained: “My work is about helping children not just to regain mobility and strength following treatment, but to support them – and their families – psychologically and practically. Philip was a very special little boy, and my thoughts are now with Sally and Bill”.

Losing a child to cancer is unimaginable for many of us. Sally and Bill told us: “We couldn’t have coped without CLIC Sargent, they kept us going and we can’t speak highly enough of people like Naomi.”
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