Maxton Bowman has leukaemia. You would not know it from the smile. “He just runs around with a big smile on his face,” said his mum, Coralle. The two-year-old from Shildon is nine months into treatment — and this August a family friend, Chris, will cycle 180 miles from Skegness to Shildon to raise £2,000 for the specialist safety bed he needs, writes volunteer community journalist, Henri Birkholz.
Ask his mum who he is, and the diagnosis is not where she starts. “The happiest little boy living in his own little world,” she said. Maxton is autistic and non-verbal, with sensory difficulties and a feeding disorder called ARFID. He likes his own space and the freedom to be himself, and he is very ticklish: “He loves being tickled. The belly chuckles he does is too cute.”
Born not breathing, Maxton came home against the odds. He had been walking barely two months when it started. “He started off with a bit of a limp on his left foot,” said Coralle, “then he couldn’t use that leg, and then he couldn’t use both legs.” Five weeks and five hospital trips later, he was blue-lighted to the RVI in Newcastle and diagnosed. He is now in the gap between chemotherapy rounds while his blood counts recover — a normal part of the process.
His long road to diagnosis is not unusual. Dr Geoff Shenton, paediatric malignant haematologist at the Great North Children’s Hospital at the RVI, who treats him, says the early symptoms of leukaemia are vague — tiredness, temperatures, aches — and easily mistaken for everyday illness, so it is common for parents to take a child to the GP or A&E several times. “Most GPs have about 500 consultations with children where cancer is a possible diagnosis,” he said, “and yet statistically less than one of them will ever turn out to be cancer.” For Maxton, being non-verbal made his pain even harder to pinpoint.
“Parents know their children best, and if they’re worried, they should seek advice and assessment,” Dr Shenton said. His point is not to alarm — repeated visits for vague symptoms are routine, and rarely cancer — but to back a parent’s instinct when something feels wrong. For families wanting more, he recommends the Children & Young People’s Cancer Association for “proper, reliable information” on the signs to watch and what to do next.
Maxton’s fight is not his family’s alone. As he continues treatment, a community has begun to rally. Chris, a family friend, will cycle 180 miles over two days this August, from Skegness to Shildon, with a GoFundMe page aiming to raise £2,000 for the safety bed. Already training at 50 miles a day, he took the idea to Maxton’s parents himself. “Even the thought of doing something like this is extremely selfless and extremely kind,” Coralle said.
The bed itself is a safety measure. Maxton cannot be left unattended day or night: he has no sense of danger. “He doesn’t understand danger,” Coralle said. An enclosed, soft-sided bed would give him a safe place to sleep — and his parents a night without taking turns to watch him. The maker, Henfrey’s & Co, has cut its price from £2,100 to £1,800. “That was a donation from ourselves, that reduction,” said Paul Henfrey.
Maxton’s legs, lost to the illness, have come back — and with them, the running. “He was running round a cricket pitch like the happiest little boy ever, living his best life,” Coralle said. If there is one thing she wants readers to take from his story, it is not pity. “I don’t want Maxton’s story to be a sad one. I want it to be a positive one,” she said. Chris’s ride sets off in August; to donate to Maxton’s bed, visit gofundme.com/f/cycle-ride-for-maxtonthebrave.
Henri Birkholz
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
