The mother of a teenager who was warned he would never be able to walk again because of a cancer has shared a video of him miraculously standing again.
Emma Davidson, 40, from Midlothian, Scotland, said son Aidan, 15, was a “healthy and happy teenage boy” until he was diagnosed in March with a form of leukaemia that had attacked his spinal cord.
The mother-of-six, works as a florist, shared a video on Facebook of the moment when Aidan defied the doctor's predictions and stood unaided for the first time ever since his diagnosis.
Next to the video Ms Davidson wrote: “I wanted to share this with you all. I feel we have all shared so much with each other during lockdown I wanted something to make you all smile.
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“This is him [Aidan] today during physio. He’s a warrior and he gives me hope that when you set a goal anything is possible.”
The post received 17,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments.
Ms Davidson said about the moment she was told about her son's cancer that “I don't think I've ever felt more sad my whole life".
It had all started with Aidan initially complaining of a sore back which she thought was due to his new mattress.
Their local GP did tests believing it might be a kidney infection, but it wasn't long before Aidan got a feeling of pins and needles in his legs and he was taken to hospital in Edinburgh for further examination.
That's when Ms Davidson and her husband Craig, 43, were given the earth-shattering news their son had cancer.
“My heart just sank and I couldn't stop crying", she said, as she described how by this point Aidan was in a wheelchair and could not feel anything below his belly button.
The consultant said the MRI found a mass of cancerous blood on Aidan's spine that was causing the back and leg pain and that he would need four rounds of chemotherapy over six months.
The consultant said he would put Aidan in for radiotherapy, which he described as trying to melt ice with a hairdryer.
Ms Davidson said: “I cried all the way home in the car and so did my husband. We didn't talk to each other at all on the car journey home.
"Breaking the news to my children that their lovely brother had cancer was one of the worst jobs I've ever had to do."
She continued: “It was on Friday that the consultant told me that Aidan may never walk again.
"He said the damage caused to Aidan’s spine was already damaged and that they never knew if his nerves would ever recover but that we had to prepare for the fact he may never walk again.
“That was so hard to take in and I felt sick and like I’d had the wind knocked right out of me.”
But her brave son Aidan remained positive and the teenager was actually the one to "console" his mother as he told her: "Don't worry mum I'll walk again".
With his body seeming to respond well to chemo, Ms Davidson said: “He can now get himself from his bed into his wheelchair using a lateral slide and he's really proud of his progress.
“He's amazed the doctors and nurses with how much he's managed in 19 weeks!”
Despite his progress the family still does not know if Aidan will ever walk again.
They said they have to take each day as it comes and see every step he takes.
