Child cancer victim dies after long battle

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 17

Child cancer victim dies after long battle

PA Auckland An Auckland boy who was one of the first children in the world to receive an experimental British cancer treatment has died in England. Christopher Woods, aged seven, was a victim of the rare virulent cancer, neuroblastoma.

The disease was diagnosed about three years ago, just after Christopher’s parents, Lieutenant-Comman-der Desmond Woods and Mrs Elizabeth Woods, moved to England when Commander Woods joined the Royal Navy.

Christopher’s grandfather, the superintendent of Mangere Hospital, Dr Desmond Woods, said Christopher was being given a full naval funeral in England. Only a few weeks ago, Christopher' was signed on as a junior naval rating in H.M.S. Daedalus, where his father was stationed. When the disease was first diagnosed, doctors treated Christopher with chemotherapy then total body irradiation after removing some of his bone marrow.

The marrow was then replaced and Christopher had a remission of the disease for two years.

When the cancer became active again, the family was told there was no hope. Then news came of a doctor in Surrey who was experimenting with an untried technique for removing, cleaning and replacing infectedbone marrow.

Christopher had to be given radiation treatment

again and spent several montbs in hospital, including eight weeks in an isolation cubicle, while his body rebuilt its immunity to disease.

He came out of hospital and went back to school in March but his family was told in June that the disease was again active and. there was no hope. The disease claimed the sight of one eye a year ago and the second about a month ago. “The day before he went blind he was up in a Navy glider,” said Dr Woods. The new treatment has been used on about 20 children since Christopher, but it is too early to estimate the success rate. Commander Woods, who was on his way to the Falklands in H.M.S. Hermes when the disease was diagnosed, was airlifted back to Britain to be with his son.

The Hermes crew helped to form a Neuroblastoma Society and has raised $14,000 for the cause.