Noah’s story

Natasha said:
“Noah is a lovely boy who enjoys swimming, camping, and playing Minecraft, Pokémon, and Roblox. As a family we love spending time together, and going to the beach is one of our favourite things to do.
In March 2022, Noah had chicken pox, and once he had got over it, we noticed a residual rash we thought was connected to the pox. He went to school, but he didn’t eat anything that day, so we called the GP who suggested we did a glass test on Noah in case it was meningitis. We did this, and the rash didn’t fade so we took him to Worthing Hospital.
When we arrived at the hospital, Noah was taken for blood tests and two hours later, we were told that Noah had ALL.”
Richard said:
“When we received Noah’s diagnosis, we were in complete shock. We had gone into hospital thinking he had meningitis, which was worrying enough, but we knew it was treatable and thought we would be home the following day. Before we knew it, we were being told about bone marrow aspirations and trying to comprehend a new vocabulary of medical terminology.
It was scary, but we did our best to remain positive during this time. Noah was only four at the time, so we didn’t want to frighten him or use big words to explain his illness to him. He knew he was poorly, and we had a brilliant book the hospital gave us to explain things to him. He also had a lion teddy with a removeable mane.”
Natasha said:
The morning after Noah’s diagnosis, we were transferred by ambulance to Southampton Hospital where Noah had his Hickman line fitted, and he started his cancer treatment on 2 April 2022. That time is all quite a blur, but I remember Richard had to go and buy us all pants at Sainsbury’s because we had nothing with us at all.
Noah’s treatment had a number of different phases, and he spent nearly 3.5 years in and out of hospital.
We first heard about Momentum when we were at Worthing Hospital – we stayed in two rooms on the ward that were decorated by the charity. One of their Family Support Workers came into Noah’s room just after we had received his diagnosis – she told us a bit about Momentum and left some information with us. At the time, there was so much to take in, but in the last year and a half, our Family Support Worker, Amy, has got to know Noah really well and he feels so comfortable around her. Amy would always check in with us in the hospital and at home too.
We went on Momentum’s riverboat during Charles III’s coronation two years ago which was very special, and we’ve stayed at the charity’s respite cabins too.
Momentum have also given us small gifts – sleep pillow mist, body lotion and a lovely pebble with a dinosaur painted on it for Noah.
Noah’s attendance at school has been between 20-60% but despite this, he has done so well at keeping up and has remained in the top sets. He is about to start Year Four at school.
The school have been great throughout Noah’s treatment – he had to miss half of Reception and a lot of Year One and his classmates were told that he was poorly. By Year Two, Noah understood his illness more and felt able to share information about it with his classmates during show and tell.
Our last chemo session was at Worthing Hospital in July this year and afterwards they organised a little bell-ringing ceremony for Noah which was very thoughtful. So many people attended – nurses, consultants, other hospital staff, friends and family, and Amy from Momentum. It felt special as everyone at the hospital knows us so well. Two weeks ago, we had our end of treatment appointment at Southampton Hospital and Noah rang a little bell there too. Noah felt a little sad when he rang the bell as being at the hospitals is all he has ever really known.”
Richard said:
“As parents, we anticipated feeling a certain way when Noah finished his treatment, but the reality is different as it feels like we have lost our safety net. While Noah was having treatment, we could take him to the hospital as soon as he got a temperature or if anything at all was worrying us. Now, we need to get used to a new protocol.
Noah has a lengthy list of places he wants to travel to, now he has completed treatment – Ireland, Japan, USA, and Italy are all on there! He is also looking forward to being in the water as much as he wants – swimming pools, baths, showers, sea, and waterparks! A simple pleasure of immersing his whole body in water, without having to worry about his Hickman line is going to have to bring him so much joy.
As parents, we are looking forward to travelling with Noah and showing him more of the world, without having to worry about being close to a hospital or working holidays around medical appointments.
When you hear the word leukaemia or cancer, you clam up and think the worst, which is very natural. However, from our experience, there is more hope than dread – we were able to make fun in the hospital isolation room and would look forward to small things that would give us hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Support from charities like Momentum, really helps – they started as a stranger but have become an important part of our lives.”
Story taken August 2025.