The parents of a schoolboy have revealed how face swelling they thought was a viral infection turned out to be a rare form of blood cancer.
Megan Clark and Adam Whittingham received the devastating news just days before little Jake's ninth birthday.
After falling ill in November, he was initially prescribed antibiotics for his symptoms.
But soon his parents noticed he had “swollen up”.
Jake’s uncle Aidan Whittingham told Yorkshire Live : "My dad's a nurse and he advised my brother to take him to the doctor.
"On the advice of the doctors, Jake was then taken to hospital.
"By the time he got to hospital he was that anaemic that his organs had gone into failure, so they actually saved his life that day and it was touch and go about whether he'd get through that day."
On November 11, his parents were told that he had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a rare form of blood cancer.
Aidan added: "He'd been ill for a week or two before that and had been on antibiotics and November 11 was the day we actually got told it was leukaemia.
"With my dad seeing the signs that he worried about - and the family doctor couldn't pinpoint where he thought the infection was - that's how they ended up getting referred to the hospital.
"They ran tests on him and found his heart and kidneys were in failure, so he was pretty much straight onto blood transfusions and stuff then."
Jake is autistic and has sensory issues, and his uncle added he "can't even begin to think" how the experience in hospital must have been for the youngster.
He said: "He's got sensory issues as well, so certain feels and touches... he doesn't like certain things or how certain things are.
"So, for him to even put up with what they were doing in the hospital you could tell he was really ill, because otherwise he'd have been kicking and screaming but he just sat there and let them get on with it."
Jake, from Barnsley, was not well enough to go home for his birthday but he was able to have a small celebration on the ward at Sheffield Children's Hospital, including a balloon and some presents.
He spent two weeks in hospital and was able to go home for Christmas, but his family have been told that he now has a long fight ahead
.
Aidan said: "He should be expected, hopefully, to make a full recovery. We don't know as of yet, but when doctors have explained it, it's pretty much at least two years treatment minimum and how he responds to treatment is going to be the basis on how long it ends up being.
"The outlook is positive, he's reacted to the chemotherapy and the cancer cells in the tests that they're doing and his bone marrow, they are low - they are still there but they are coming down."
Jake's mum and dad have three other children, Lily-Mae, nine, Alfie, seven, and Annie, two, and Aidan said that the added worry of Jake's illness has "hit them hard".
He added: "They have soldiered through it, I'm proud because it hasn't been easy, so we've had to rally round them.
"I've got my young boy here, he's only 14 months, I couldn't even think or imagine what I would think if it was him, I can't really put myself in his [Adam's] position, but they've struggled."
Aidan has now set up a fundraiser for his brother and Megan, to help raise some money for adjustments to their house - as Jake will require a wheelchair and additional mobility adjustments.
The fundraiser, which was launched 10 days ago, has already raised £1,350 and Aidan is hoping to get it to £1,500.
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