12-year-old Aldrich Kruger from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape has always been very active and wanted to learn new things at every opportunity. He loved playing rugby, dancing and riding his bike.
All was well until Aldrich’s parents noticed a small lump in his neck and took him to the family’s General Practitioner (GP) who advised that it was a fat gland. However, the lump started to shift and grow. Aldrich has also suffered from asthma since birth and his parents noticed that his chest started troubling him more than usual.
After another visit to their GP, Aldrich was sent for blood tests and an x-ray, which revealed that he had contracted Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs, though it can affect any organ in the body. He was sent to George Provincial Hospital, where further tests showed that Aldrich did not in fact have TB, but that he has Stage 4 Papillary Thyroid Cancer. This is when everything changed for the Kruger family.
“The words every adult dreaded! It’s CANCER! This diagnosis came like a thief in the night and stole our dreams for a future”, says Lisa Kruger, Aldrich’s mom.
The devastated family was referred to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. Lisa recalls that the next 24 hours went by so fast while planning for accommodation and transportation which caused even further distress for the family.
“The next few days was a blur of CT scans, MRI’s, blood tests and biopsies. The final diagnosis came, Stage 4 Papillary Thyroid Cancer – very rare in children, which had spread to his lungs and a spot was also found in the bone in his groin”, explains Lisa.
After a very long and risky operation, Aldrich’s thyroid was removed. Chemotherapy, often used to treat cancer, does not work for this type of cancer, so Aldrich should have received Radioactive Iodine treatment (RAI), a common way to treat different forms of thyroid cancer. However, after the operation Aldrich developed double pneumonia and was not able not start the treatment, so the family headed back to Mossel Bay with heavy hearts.
In May 2020 Aldrich, now recovered from pneumonia, returned to Cape Town for his RAI treatment in an isolation area at the Red Cross Hospital. Lisa often encouraged and comforted him when he felt scared.
“I told him, it’s cool. You’re going to be radioactive, like the Flash. It put a semi smile on his face. My heart was in pieces, how do I leave my child there? When he’s scared, I can’t be there with him. But the nurses and doctors were so understanding – they housed me in the day room during the nights that he was required to be in isolation so I can be just down the hall from him.” says Lisa.
For the next few month she continued to receive high doses of treatment and underwent a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, an imaging test that helps reveal how your tissues and organs are functioning. This was to determine whether the RAI was working. The results looked good, but doctors cautioned that there might be side effects from the treatment.
Aldrich and his family’s journey continue as he receives his RAI treatment at Red Cross every 12 months, with follow up blood tests at the George Provincial Hospital.
“We still live everyday as our last, with hope and belief that Aldrich’s story will be one to remember and inspire. The love and blessings from God are overwhelming and we know that God is already working miracles in Aldrich’s body”, says Lisa.
