MAGICAL MEMORIES

After a shocking diagnosis, Georgina Armstrong, 43, made sure her son had a truly special Christmas

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Marching down the stairs, my son, Teddy, then two, looked like he might burst with excitement. ‘Merry Mittmass!’ he declared, rushing over to his presents wrapped up under the tree. I laughed at his cute mispronunciation of Christmas and watched on proudly, with my husband, Silas, then 34, as Teddy tore open his wrapped presents, his eyes lighting up with amazement.

It was December 2022, and Teddy spent the morning playing with his new racing cars, singing carols and yanking baubles off the Christmas tree when he thought I wasn’t looking. Later, when we sat down for dinner, he flashed me a cheeky look. ‘More gravy,’ he grinned. Me and Silas laughed, but what we didn’t know then was that this was the last normal Christmas we'd ever have.

'I GOT A SICK FEELING OF FOREBODING IN MY STOMACH'

Later the next year, in July 2023, Teddy came home from nursery to meet his baby brother, Laurie. He'd been so excited about becoming a big brother and he jumped up on my bed, stroking Laurie’s little head.

A week later, Teddy kept being sick and seemed a bit wobbly on his feet. At first, Silas and I thought he'd picked up a tummy bug. The doctor diagnosed a viral infection and prescribed paracetamol. But he was no better by September, and he was also losing weight, so we took him to A&E at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. When he struggled to stand on one leg, a doctor rushed him away for a CT scan, and I got a sick feeling of foreboding in my stomach. ‘There's something terribly wrong here,’ I told Silas while we waited for the results.