CANCER - a dramatic diagnosis before the first birthday❗️Save Hubert’s life before it is too late!

We never thought that we would write these words. Our son...our Hubert, our little gem, who is not even two years old, is currently fighting for his life. Instead of the first words, first chemotherapy cycles, instead of careless childhood – terrible fear... Cancer diagnosis felt like a cruel sentence. Instead of picking up new shoes for spring, we fear that our child will not live to see tomorrow. But we are fighting – we are fighting for him, for his life that has just started. We are Hubert’s Mum and Dad and we are asking for your help in this fight.

Hubert was born healthy... He is our second son and made our family complete. When he was born in March 2024, we were the happiest in the world. There was no indication of the events that took place almost a year later, in February 2025...

It started innocently – there was a bruise on our son’s eyelid. We were certain that he hit himself with a toy... When swelling appeared, we went to an ophthalmologist. Further doctors’ appointments, then emergency room. Our life fell apart there. When after some blood tests and USG the doctors told us that there is a 7x8 cm tumour in our son’s belly... No one was ready for these words. It turned out that the tumour metastasised to an eye socket... We came in with a swollen eye and we ended up in hell...

The same day we went to the oncology ward. The doctors suspected that our son had one of the most dangerous paediatric cancers – neuroblastoma stage 4. Unfortunately, they were right. This cancer attacks mainly small children as if it was selecting the youngest and the most vulnerable...  Additionally, N-MYC gene amplification, which makes the tumour more aggressive and requires more intensive treatment, is to our son’s disadvantage. After a week, our son received his first chemotherapy. Hubert spent his first birthday in an isolation room at the oncology ward...

We are living in the worst nightmare that can happen to a parent. Our world has completely fallen apart. We started the fight for our son’s life and the other one, two years older, was waiting at home, missing...Only one parent could accompany our son at the ward so we were separated all the time. We started long months of hospital treatment, many tests –MRIs, CTs, X-rays, bone marrow biopsies... At first, our son received 8 cycles of chemotherapy which, fortunately, worked – the tumours have shrunk visibly. There was an attempt to remove the tumour in the eye socket but it was not successful. 4 more chemotherapy cycles were necessary...

Before the next surgery, we heard the words that made our hearts beat faster – “the tumour disappeared”. Hubert also underwent surgery to remove the tumour from his stomach. It was in a difficult place and surrounded the aorta... We had been looking for a facility that would do the surgery for a long time. Another chemotherapy cycle was necessary. The wonderful surgeons from the University Clinical Centre in Gdansk removed almost the entire tumour. After the surgery, our son spent 4 days in the ICU, connected to many devices... This sight was breaking our hearts but we knew he was strong and would survive and that we were not going to stop fighting for him.

On 24 November Hubert started the next stage of treatment – autologous bone marrow transplant in a hospital in Poznań. It is preceded by megachemotherapy which, as we hope, will destroy the remaining parts of the tumour. There are many months of separation ahead of us because Hubert needs to be in complete isolation... The final stage of treatment in Poland is going to be immunotherapy (6 cycles of 10-day intravenous infusions without any break...)

Unfortunately, neuroblastoma is very insidious and often recurs, and each recurrence is more difficult to treat with worse prognoses... At the oncology ward, we learned that there is a therapy, the only one that gives hope that the cancer will not recur and that Hubercik will have careless childhood, far away from hospitals, IVs and PVCs. In the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, children suffering from neuroblastoma receive a series of special vaccines preventing recurrence – it helps the body recognize and destroy cancerous cells before the disease comes back. Unfortunately, this treatment is very expensive, takes 3 years and is non-reimbursable in Poland...

We need to raise enormous funds to cover the cost of our son’s treatment. We are a regular family and we were faced an awful tragedy in the form of our son’s cancer. Hubert is a brave child who wants to live and his smile gives us strength to fight. We would do anything for him to be healthy and have a happy childhood. We will be grateful for any kind of support.

Hubert’s Mum and Dad