The “normal kid” who complained of stomach aches was soon battling aggressive stage four cancer
An ‘ordinary’ seven-year-old boy discovered he had stage four cancer after complaining of simple stomach pains after a day of play.
Raf spent his seventh birthday running around with friends and family before telling his mother, Natalie Oaten, in October 2021 that he was having a stomach ache.
She took him to the doctors where Raf walked out with a diagnosis of a mild urinary tract infection and a prescription for antibiotics.
However, when the little boy continued to complain of discomfort, they went to him Lismore Base Hospital in NSW, where scans revealed Raf had stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer.
Now nine and cancer-free, but with a 50 percent chance of relapse, Raf is preparing to celebrate Christmas with his family, who have since made it their mission to raise awareness of the ‘lifeline’ treatment their son is receiving. has saved.
Raf celebrated his seventh birthday in 2021 when he complained of abdominal pain that turned out to be stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer
His mother, Natalie Oaten, (pictured together) rushed him to Queensland Children’s Hospital where he began a comprehensive 20-month treatment program.
During the height of the pandemic, Ms Oaten rushed Raf from Lismore, NSW the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
They were separated from their family in Brisbane while the borders were closed.
“That turned into four months of not seeing my husband and my other son because they couldn’t cross the border at the time,” Ms. Oaten said. 7News.
Raf spent more than twenty months in interstate treatment, away from his father and siblings.
For almost two years, Raf’s brother watched his father cry in the shower, while it remained unclear whether the cancer would be fatal.
At one point, Raf was “in so much pain you couldn’t touch him” and lost mobility on one side, his mother said.
He underwent multiple sessions of chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and stem cell transplants.
However, the breakthrough came after Raf started a new type of immunotherapy called dinutuximab, which his family believes saved his life.
Since doctors’ approval, Raf and his family have advocated for the treatment, while experts continue research at the university Ian Frazer Center for Pediatric Immunotherapy Research in Queensland.
The Oatens are now advocating the ‘lifeline’ treatment that they claim saved Raf – a new type of immunotherapy called dinutuximab, which helps the immune system destroy cancer cells
Immunotherapy was effective for Raf because it helped his immune system destroys cancer cells, but is not typically used to treat children.
Ms Oaten said that by raising awareness of the treatment her family hopes other children at high risk of neuroblastoma could have access to it.
The research comes with a hefty price tag, but if just one percent of Australians donated $5 it would make a big difference, the mother said.
‘Cancer is difficult and confrontational, but not beautiful. You lose people en masse and suddenly your village becomes really lonely,” she said.
“We still don’t know where we’re going to be in two, five or 10 years, so I’ll be damned if I stand there and say we beat this… we’re going to live with this for the rest of our lives.”