January 2013
This story starts like any other
fairy-tale. It’s about a family living
happily ever after in a land far, far
away. The kids were growing up
too fast and going to school. They
would both get the occasional head
cold, a cough, or even a pesky fever,
but besides a broken lip and one
(unnecessary!) appendectomy, all was
basically going well. Luke was five
years old and in Primary 1, his sister
Jessica was seven and in Primary 3,
and both were doing well at school.
They enjoyed each other’s company
and also being with their friends,
having play dates and swimming –
swimming was an important part of
all of our lives.
It was the end of January 2013
and our world was about to change
completely and inexplicably.
Luke had been complaining about
sore legs for some time and he had a
low-grade fever that came and went.
After numerous visits to doctors, we
managed to treat the symptoms and
give him momentary relief, but he
never seemed to get better. Obviously,
we were both losing our patience with
the lack of improvement in Luke’s
for Luke
A two-year battle against cancer will make you
realise how precious every moment together is.
Parents
Sean
and
Tanya Inkin
tell their story.
health, so on the 28th of January,
2013, we went to see a few specialist
doctors. Luke was in real pain on the
day and it was obvious that something
was really wrong. We hoped that we
were on the brink of knowing what
was making Luke sick, and that we’d
walk out of the appointment with
a little brown bag of medicine that
would finally make Luke better.
However, instead of a little brown
bag, what we finally had by about 8pm
that evening was some of the scariest
news any parent can possibly hear.
The diagnosis was acute lymphoblastic
leukaemia (ALL). Luke had cancer,
and our world fell apart.
The fight begins
Luke was admitted the very next day
to the paediatric oncology department
at the Queen Mary Hospital in
Pok Fu Lam and treatment began
immediately. It was a furious blur
of needles, drips, bone aspirations,
lumbar punctures, X-rays and a
surgery to insert a central line in his
chest to deliver future intravenous
drugs. Signatures were thrown around
as one consent form after the next was
put before us. Luke was finally being
Suzanne Goodwin Photography
32
Playtimes
