Young Essex cancer patient diagnosed at 12 asked parents 'am I going to die?'

A young boy from Essex may lose his leg after being diagnosed with bone cancer before his 13th birthday.

Aiden Waller, 12, had a normal life in Woodham Ferrers - going to school and playing games online with his friends. But one day, that all changed.

In February 2022, he was told by his doctor that he had osteosarcoma - a type of bone cancer - which came as a complete shock to him and his parents.

Aiden's mum Sarah said: "We originally thought it was a muscle tear, a strain or something silly like that.

"Our worst case scenario was a blood clot, so to actually get told it’s cancer - that was hard for all of us.

"Aiden said to us ‘am I going to die?’, and if the treatment hadn’t worked, if we knew the chemo wasn’t working and things like that, it would be a different story.

"But we’ve seen it working brilliantly."

Since Aiden's diagnosis, he’s undergone several rounds of chemotherapy, as well as having an operation to remove the cancer.

But despite this, his mum fears there is still a high risk that Aiden could lose his leg.

She said: “There is the risk that the leg will go. It’s not a low risk, it’s a high risk. But we’ve had lots of conversations about it, and we’ve met someone who lost his leg, and who seems to do better without the leg.

"We’ve said that after the surgery it’s going to be one of two things - when you wake up just check how many legs you’ve got, because you’re either going to have one leg or two.”But there will always be things Aiden will never be able to do. He cannot do anything that will risk jarring his leg, such as trampolining.After the surgery, there will still be another four months of chemo to go.

But his mother has told Aiden the goal is clear: “All of it is just about trying to get your life back really. Then to have an actual life.”

Aiden has found the long treatments boring, but has used the time to write a children’s book, which the family are hoping to publish, as well as teaching himself to create animations.

Mrs Waller and the family are fundraising for every charity which has helped them.

She said: “We’re going to give something back, because it would be nice for them to be able to help another child."

She has also set up a fundraiser to help Aiden get to Galaxy’s Edge, a Disney theme park in Orlando, USA.

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