An 11-year-old boy from Plymouth has died after a three-year battle with a rare form of blood cancer, just a week after his family brought forward Christmas so they could celebrate it with him. Oliver Brown passed away at a children's hospice on Saturday evening, surrounded by his parents Mike and Nicola and his eight-year-old brother Benjamin.
Oliver was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a blood disorder so rare it affects only four in one million children worldwide, at the end of 2016. He underwent intense treatment, including more than 15 operations, two five-and-a-half-month stints in hospital, and time in isolation. In May, doctors told the family there was nothing more they could do and that Oliver had only weeks to live, but he defied the odds and lived for another five months.
His parents paid tribute to his bravery and love of life. Nicola said: 'He was adored by anyone who ever met him, he was unique. They broke the mould when they gave us Oliver. He was loving, cheeky, compassionate, brave, and was really contented with who he was as an individual.' Mike added: 'He had a real love of Christmas, hence why we did it. He genuinely adored Christmas and we knew that he wouldn’t be here this year to experience it.'
The family had put up Christmas decorations early, including lights across the front of their house, illuminated snowmen, a Christmas tree, a life-size singing Santa, and a Lego Winter Village with a moving train. Oliver's battle began with a stem cell transplant in January 2017 after intense chemotherapy, but the cancer returned in 2018. A second transplant using donated umbilical cord stem cells was arranged, but the cancer advanced rapidly into borderline acute myeloid leukaemia.
