'Finn the Fabulous' proudly rings end of treatment bell
Emotions were running high at Birmingham Children's Hospital as schoolboy Finley Hill proudly took his turn to ring the end of treatment bell.
The seven-year-old rang the bell, which signifies a course of treatment is finished, so hard it broke, relieved mother Jo joked.
Finn the Fabulous, as he is known on social media, from Belbroughton, was diagnosed with rare immune system disorder familial HLH, which causes damaged and enlarged organs. Without stem cell treatment he will die.
His family desperately began the search for a stem cell donor and were overjoyed when a 43-year-old man from Brazil turned out to be an almost perfect match.
The Hagley Primary pupil started weeks of gruelling treatment in hospital, but was allowed home just as the New Year rolled in.
And on Tuesday this week he proudly rang the bell to show his stem cell treatment was complete. Mum Jo said he still had "a mountain to climb" but that the whole family were so proud of how far he had come.
She said: "Going through a diagnosis and treatment like HLH/cancer can make your tummy flip at a sneeze, I’m not sure we’ll ever get to fully relax again and will rightly be on a heightened state of alert for the next few months and years while everything hopefully returns to our new normal.
"But for now we celebrate just how brilliant this boy is, how amazing he has done so far, how he has exceeded all expectations, how strong and brave he is. How much love he is surrounded by."
She added it was still very early days for Finn, but said he was "bright, bully and laughing all the time".
The family has urged everyone to sign up and register to be a stem cell donor, to give other families like Finn’s hope.
For more details, see the register visit the UK Stem Cell Register via dkms.org.uk or anthonynolan.org
