Christopher was born on 23/4/1993. He was born with what they call a Hypostasis problem. When Christopher was 10 months old he suffered a febrile convulsion, he seemed to recover from this, then when he was 15 months old he again suffered another convulsion but this time he was seriously ill and he was very lucky.

To survive this one, Christopher was always a sickly child and always suffered from more bouts of Flu than other kids his age. When Christopher became 8 years of age he became unwell on September the 11th 2001. To most people its the day that New York saw its biggest disaster, To us it was the day that was to be the start of Christopher's struggle with what the doctors told us was only a common cold.

During the next 18 days our son saw numerous doctors who told us that there was nothing seriously wrong with our son and we were just to let it run its course. He attended our sick Children's hospital three times during this period of time and we were reassured there was nothing to worry about. On the 28th September 2001, Christopher complained of severe headaches, by this time he had not eaten for 18 days and he was hardly drinking at all.

During that week all he seemed to do was sleep and he did not have any energy to do the simplest of things. The next day again we went to the local sick kids hospital again and this time they decided to run some blood tests. This showed that our son was anemic and his Blood pressure was dangerously low. The doctors decided to admit our son.

On the Monday 1st October 2001 Christopher was taken to Operating Room for a Lumber Puncture a brain scan and a bone marrow aspiration. The next day the doctor took Christopher's dad and myself into a private room and that is when we were told Christopher had AML. We where told that the type he had was usually associated with the type an adult would have.

Our whole world fell apart that evening. we were told that if Christopher was successful in receiving a bone marrow transplant and the cancer returned after a few weeks there would not be much that the doctors could do for Christopher.

Christopher started his chemo on the 19/10/2001 and within 48 hours Christopher was moved into complete isolation. Christopher seemed to be coping well for the following 16 days and on the 5/11/2001 Christopher was taken out of the isolation room for a scan on his tummy. He seemed fine that evening but the next day Christopher did not seem very well. I had gone home to collect our other son Liam from school and when I returned to the hospital Christopher was seriously because his immune system had crashed and he was seriously dehydrated.

The doctors said that the Hickman line seemed to be infected and that they had to remove the line as soon as possible. Christopher was moved to intensive care after the doctors had worked on him for a couple of hours. When we went down to intensive care we sat with Christopher for about an hour when the doctor asked to see me and his dad In A little side room. It was there that we got the devastating news that Christopher might not survive a long period of time on a ventilator.

Christopher was sedated and seemed to be doing well for the first 8 days then on the 14th of November 2001 Christopher took a turn for the worst and we were told that Christopher would not survive the night. We anxiously called all the family to the hospital and told them the devastating news. Christopher was a stubborn child and most of the time he did as he needed to do . It was on Friday 16 November 2001 that Christopher eventually but so sadly passed away and we feel that Christopher had the last word on his passing as he decided no doctor would tell him when he was going to die. We were told that Christopher probably had the leukemia in his body since birth and that he had a chromosome missing in his bone marrow and this is what they call Monosomy 7 chromosome disorder. We were also told that this is why he was born with the Hypostasis problem.

Christopher will always be a part of our lives and we will never forget what A precious and loving son that he was. Christopher's favorite record was "hey baby by dj otzi" and every time we hear this record we will think about Christopher.

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I would like to dedicate this poem to Christopher

Just the average family
We didn't ask for more
Then life was changed
Completely When cancer
knocked upon Our sons door.

We'll never understand It.
It just seems unfair
We wish we could
Hear the door knock
One more time.
And see you standing there.

If you sing in heaven
Like you did down here.
Even the angels will stand
And cheer.

Liz Donaghy

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