‘If Mason’s story can save one child’s life, I’ve done my bit,’ says mum who thought son’s snoring was ‘chesty cough’
A mum who thought her toddler’s snoring was caused by a cough picked up at nursery was horrified when it turned out he had leukaemia.
Ellie Keating noticed her two-year-old son Mason had begun to snore while battling a cough, a temperature and night sweats.
The concerned mum took him to the GP four times in three months but when Mason started vomiting, became sensitive to light and couldn’t stand, she called 111 who sent an ambulance.
After three trips to hospital, the 29-year-old was stunned when Mason was diagnosed with t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia – just like Emmerdale’s tragic cancer storyline for baby Evan.
Mason was immediately put into a coma while on dialysis.
After being brought out of his coma, Mason started a four-week course of intense chemotherapy and steroid treatment but didn’t go into remission and he sadly died a week later.
Now Ellie is sharing Mason’s story to highlight the symptoms and urge parents with any concerns to seek medical help – praising Emmerdale for tackling the topic in their latest storyline.
The ITV soap is covering the heartbreak Billy and Dawn Fletcher encounter when their baby boy Evan is diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Ellie, from Bridport, Dorset, said: “One of the main worries for me was this cough, it was very very chesty.
“It started to make him snore at night and he’d never snored before.
“A cancer diagnosis hadn’t even entered my head as a possibility, I didn’t know the symptoms.
All of a sudden it was just four big breaths and he was gone
Ellie Keating
“When they told me Mason had cancer, the noise I made didn’t even sound human.
“I was bawling my eyes out and screaming. [Then] as I was starting to get my head around the fact he’d got cancer I was hit with ‘he’s going to die’.
“I had no chance to research alternative therapies, I had no time.”
Little Mason’s end came painfully soon afterwards.
“[On the day he died] there was no warning,” Ellie said.
“We were doing handprints and footprints with the two nurses and I was showing them videos of him, then all of a sudden it was just four big breaths and he was gone.
“The nurse just grabbed me because I was going for the floor. She grabbed me and she held me and we were all sobbing in that room.”
SYMPTOMS ‘DIDN’T SIT RIGHT’
Mr Bean-‘obsessed’ Mason started showing cold-like symptoms in December 2019.
After multiple GP visits between January and March 2020, Ellie called 111 when his symptoms worsened.
A chest X-ray and blood tests at Southampton Hospital in March revealed he had leukaemia.
Ellie, who is also mum to three-year-old Blake Ollis, said: “Other than the odd sickness bug or childhood illness, he was always fine.
Emmerdale's heartbreaking baby Evan storyline
The ITV soap covered the couple’s heartbreak after their baby boy Evan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
The episodes were produced with the support of the charity Leukaemia Care, who worked closely with the Emmerdale production team on the storyline to ensure a realistic and authentic depiction.
Colin Dyer, CEO at Leukaemia Care said: “Every year 10,000 people are diagnosed with leukaemia in the UK.
“The Baby Evan storyline being featured on Emmerdale, is helping to deliver a very important message not just about the awareness of the symptoms and the condition, but about how it affects the family and those around them.”
Actress Olivia Bromley, who plays Dawn, said: “This is an incredibly challenging and heartbreaking story, but such an important story for Emmerdale to tell.
“I’ve learnt so much since working with Leukaemia Care and speaking to parents whose children have been diagnosed, and we want to not only raise awareness but to do justice to the experience of families who are blindsided by a diagnosis like this.”
The story begins when Dawn spots a new bruise on baby Evan’s leg.
Dr Liam recommends taking Evan straight to A&E, where a paediatrician examines him, does blood tests and take an urgent bone marrow biopsy.
But the next day, the doctor confirms that Evan has a form of Leukaemia.
Read more on the storyline here.
“The cold-like symptoms started around Christmas 2019. He hadn’t long been at nursery so in the very early stages I just put it down to ‘it’s winter, he’s caught a cold’.
“But as more symptoms were coming into the mix it just didn’t sit right that it was a typical viral infection.
“He was then vomiting and his poo looked like he’d swallowed tobacco, it was really bitty.
When I came back in that room and saw him all hooked up to the machines and tubes in his mouth he just looked so small. I just felt there was nothing I could do
Ellie Keating
“He also had night sweats. I’d go in and he would be freezing cold but he would be dripping in sweat.
“He wasn’t eating, he was a very good eater, and he wasn’t drinking which meant no wet nappies.
“I know that’s a number one alarm when a child doesn’t have wet nappies.”
A DEVASTATING DIAGNOSIS
During a hospital visit in March 2020 Ellie was told the devastating news that Mason had leukaemia.
Ellie said: “At Southampton Hospital I met his consultant and that’s when I was told how bad [it was] and to expect that he might not make it through the night.”
“He was put into a coma straight away. The consultant explained to me 97 per cent of his blood cells were cancerous and it’s the highest white cell blood count that she’d ever seen in a patient.
“When I came back in that room and saw him all hooked up to the machines and tubes in his mouth he just looked so small.
“As a mum your first instinct is to help and protect your kids. I just felt there was nothing I could do.”
He loved life. Every day was an adventure, he was very cheeky and everyone doted on him
Ellie Keating
Despite treatment, Mason didn’t go into remission and all his symptoms came back – with stunned doctors saying they hadn’t seen anything like it before.
Ellie says she was told they could try another week of intense chemo and then full-body radiation treatment but that it would likely cause severe brain damage.
The other option was to switch to palliative care.
Ellie said: “The consultant explained that even though Mason was a couple of cancer cells away from being in remission, it had all come back.
“She’d said never seen anything like this before, only one reported case of this in the UK and that was back in the 1990s.”
A ‘CLEVER’ TOT WHO LIT UP A ROOM
Ellie and Mason moved into a self-contained flat on the children’s ward of the hospital and stayed there for a week until the tot passed away on July 23rd 2020.
Ellie said: “He loved life. Every day was an adventure, he was very cheeky and everyone doted on him.
“He was so clever and – as cliche as it sounds – he did light up a room.
“He was obsessed with Mr Bean. When he was in that little flat at the end that’s all he had on repeat on the TV. He ended up quoting it word for word.
“He loved animals and he had such a kind little heart. If I was upset for whatever reason he’d come over, he’d give me his sheep [toy] and he’d stroke my arm and say ‘don’t cry Mummy’.
“He was just so selfless, he always thought of other people – and he was only two.”
The mum, who found out she was expecting another baby, Blake, the night before Mason’s funeral.
Stand your ground and trust your gut because early diagnosis could save lives. I couldn’t save Mason, but if I can save one child’s life I’ve done my bit
She’s now speaking out about her experience so parents know what signs to look out for and get them checked.
Ellie said: “[By sharing Mason’s story] I hope it will raise awareness of symptoms and encourage people to get them checked out.
“When I’ve seen things like that or read magazines and read people’s stories I’ve always thought ‘that won’t happen to me’. I think that’s how a lot of people think, especially with childhood cancer.
“Until it happens to you it won’t ever cross your mind and I think that needs to change.”
The mum praised Emmerdale for raising awareness around leukaemia.
“I think it’s absolutely brilliant that Emmerdale are touching on it because I don’t know of any other soap that has brought so much awareness,” she said.
“We’ve seen adult cancer storylines but to see that, I think that’s pretty big.”
Ellie had some further advice to share with parents whose kids display worrying symptoms like Mason’s.
“My message to parents would be to 100 per cent stand your ground and trust your gut because early diagnosis could save lives.
“I couldn’t save Mason, but if I can save one child’s life I’ve done my bit.”
The symptoms of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a type of blood cancer.
It starts from white blood cells called lymphocytes in the bone marrow.
Anyone can get it, but it is most common in younger people, especially children aged four and under.
Symptoms often mimic other conditions, but kids might experience:
- Feeling weak or tired
- Flu-like symptoms
- A high temperature (fever)
- Picking up or not being able to shake off infections, such as coughs and colds
- Bruising and bleeding easily
- Weight loss
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Bone or joint pain
- Breathlessness
- Feeling full
- Looking pale or washed out
Some patients will also get a rash that looks like tiny red, purple or brown dots that don’t turn white when pressed.
Almost 90 per cent of children under 15 with ALL will survive for five years or more after being diagnosed.
Source: Cancer Research UK