Indies Child of Courage Archie Wilks successfully completes cancer treatment in America
Indies Child of Courage Archie Wilks has completed a groundbreaking two-year medical trial in America and is celebrating reassuring results with a trip to Disney World.
On Sunday (October 13) his parents, Harriet and Simon, shared the good news with supporters who helped raise more than £230,000 to fund his state-of-the-art treatment at the award-winning Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina.
They said: “Archie’s final scans were all OK! Anything showing up on his MIBG scans hasn’t changed in the two and a half years since completing frontline UK treatment, suggesting everything inside him is stable and nothing nasty is lingering.”
An MIBG scan is used to look for uncontrolled or abnormal cell growth in the body.
Archie, now eight, was just a tot when he became seriously ill in December of 2018. A month later, doctors told his mum and dad that he had a large mass on one of his kidneys and he was officially diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma.
The youngster endured 42 months of gruelling treatment in the UK, including chemotherapy and the removal of his kidney.
In the summer of 2022, the Newport Primary School pupil rang the bell at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, signalling the successful end of his conventional treatment.
His parents hoped he would start a vaccination course at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a world-renowned treatment and research institution in New York. However, a lung infection meant he missed the deadline to start that treatment.
Instead, he travelled to Levine Children’s Hospital to begin a programme aimed at preventing a relapse of his cancer.
His identical twin Henry has been with him every step of the gruelling journey and the boys are now enjoying a sunshine break in Florida with their parents as the Newport family begins a new chapter in Archie’s recovery.
Simon and Harriet said: “He has now completed the two-year medical trial in the United States, aiming to lower any chance of relapse. The longer he goes post-treatment, the lower the chances of it coming back.
“There have been a lot of difficult steps along this journey, and we feel that we’ve always made the right decisions for Archie.
“With the opportunity to undertake medical trials, Archie’s determination and everything else along the way that happened or helped for one reason or another, he’s been given the best chance to live his life.
Simon, a former student at Newport Free Grammar School, and Harriet, who attended the Herts and Essex High School, said of their son: “He’s an amazing guy and never ceases to impress.”
Archie completed his treatment as Hurricane Milton hit the United States.
“We made the long drive down to Disney, slightly later than planned due to the weather! But the boys now have a week of fun to celebrate Archie finishing his treatment.”
The Spurs fan’s resilience earned him the Child of Courage award at the 2019 Indies Community Awards, although Archie was too unwell to attend the ceremony at South Mill Arts. He shared the award with 17-year-old Birchwood High School student Katie Callaghan.
