In March 2023, at the age of 11, Rian was diagnosed with a rare form of tissue cancer - Rhabdomyosarcoma in his left hand. This cancer is very aggressive and treatment started in April, however only after 6 weeks of treatment starting, I received a call from Rian's oncologist telling me that they needed to amputate 3 fingers and a large part of Rian's hand to have a good chance to save him. The amputation happened in June 2023. Whilst our world had been shattered by the cancer diagnosis and amputation, in July we were told that they hadn't managed to remove all of the tumour and that there wasn't clear margins on the remainder of what was left of Rian's hand and that a second and more radical amputation was needed. I have no words that can even come close to describing the devastation we felt. The second amputation took place in August 2023. In the second amputation, Rian lost the remainder of his hand and up to his mid forearm. Rian finished all his chemotherapy in October 2024 and has now returned to full time school as of January 2025.

Throughout Rian's illness, right from the very start, the support for not only Rian, but the whole family, given by the Young Lives Versus Cancer social worker, Kate Ryan, has been invaluable.