A six-year-old sent away from the doctors with Gaviscon to treat a ‘poorly tummy’ nearly lost his life to a golf-ball sized brain tumour.
Logan Russell’s parents were advised by their GP to give him the medicine after he began to feel unwell.
But after the sickness got worse they took him to hospital for an MRI scan which revealed Logan had an aggressive golf-ball sized tumour on his brain.
Doctors at King’s College Hospital said the tumour had been growing in Logan’s brain for two and a half months.
Luckily medics were able to remove the tumour in an operation in June and Logan is now on a nine-month treatment programme, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Logan’s father Dennis Russell, 50, said: “We just thought it was a funny tummy. We had no idea why they were scanning his head when it was a sickness thing.
“When you are standing in the operation theatre while your son is going under and you know it is a high risk operation it just breaks you.
“It has been very traumatic but you just have to get your chin up and put a smile on and get on with things as best you can.
“I lost my brother to cancer when I was four and I was determined I wouldn’t lose my son.”
Mr Russell, of Cranbrook, Kent, said the worst part of his son’s illness was the first few weeks where he wasn’t eating.
Logan also had problems with his eyes and his heart rate went down to just 25 beats per minute.
Mr Russell, a school groundsman, added: “One day he turned to me and said, ‘I just want to be normal’.
“It is a very, very sad thing but everyone has been so nice and supportive.
“He had his sixth birthday at the hospital and when they came to collect him for radiotherapy there were balloons and ribbons decorating his trolley.”
