Charlie Carter died of an aggressive brain tumor (Image: Submitted)
A young boy has tragically died after his eye pain and vomiting turned out to be stage 4 cancer.
Doctors initially mistook Charlie Carter’s symptoms for food poisoning.
However, after his parents insisted on a brain scan and biopsy, it was discovered that he had grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive and malignant tumour.
Charlie, who lived with his family in Edgware, London, died of the aggressive tumor a few years ago, and his parents now support a center aiming to find a cure for the deadliest childhood cancers, My London reports.
Charlie first told his mother Karen he felt bad at the age of five during a “random episode” in the summer of 2009 when he rolled out of bed crying in pain.
Due to his projectile vomiting, his parents took him to A&E, who sent him home with a diagnosis of food poisoning.
Karen Carter with Charlie (Image: Submitted)
In the weeks that followed, he developed episodes of severe eye pain and was vomiting again.
Eye tests and blood tests showed nothing abnormal, but his mother became increasingly worried when he began to vomit every day.
But after a brain scan and biopsy, it tragically revealed that Charlie had grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme.
Karen said after hearing the diagnosis: ‘Charlie’s dad was angry with the doctors for missing him so many times.
“I remember the feeling of total despair. I can’t even explain this feeling – it was the most horrible pain.
“It couldn’t happen to our Charlie, to us – it’s only something you read or hear about.”
The Cancer Research Institute aims to find a cure for the deadliest of all childhood cancers (Image: The Cancer Research Institute)
Charlie underwent surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but died eight months later aged just six, despite his parents’ struggle to find a cure.
Karen added: “In desperation, we contacted different hospitals around the world for help and got a second opinion, but it seemed like no one could change the result.
“We spent hours and hours looking for a cure for our little boy with doors slamming in our faces everywhere we turned.
“It was exhausting and exhausting, but we were desperate for a cure.
“Charlie knew he had a lump in his head and the doctors were trying to reduce it.
“He never complained, although he asked, ‘Why me, mum?’ two to three times.
“We tried to explain that sometimes things happen and we all have to be strong. I promised him he would get better because that’s what we believed.
She this week, March 20, welcomed the news that Brain Tumor Research has awarded a £2.5 million grant to the Cancer Research Institute to open a new centre.
Located in Sutton, the new center has ambitious plans to identify new treatments for high-grade glioma brain tumors occurring in children and young people – including the type of tumor from which Charlie died, glioblastoma (GBM).
Median survival for the vast majority of these tumors is only nine to 18 months.
Dr Karen Noble, director of research, policy and innovation at Brain Tumor Research, said: ‘The goal is to get this work into trials within the next five years so that we can give real hope. to families in the future.
“The current situation means that people, already facing the most trying circumstances, often have no choice but to seek out and fund trials abroad with all the expense, upheaval and uncertainty that that implies.”
For Karen and the rest of the family, they said losing Charlie changed their lives forever and didn’t get any easier no matter how long.
Karen described Charlie as a “funny, smart” six-year-old who was popular at her school, Broadfields in Edgware.
Charlie was a huge Adam Sandler fan and had a special love for rhinos which were his favorite animals, his mother added.
He liked to dress up as his favorite superheroes, especially Spiderman.
His favorite singer was Michael Jackson and he used to practice his dance moves over and over again.