TIGER Mikołajek Wesołowski versus fatal liver cancer MRT

Dear friends and strangers, people with big hearts – I turn to you with an appeal!

Without your help, our 16-month-old son Mikołaj will die...

Mikołajek was a long-awaited son (I lost three pregnancies earlier). However, this pregnancy went well, the son was born on time, healthy, beautiful, our beloved – he completed our family of three like a missing puzzle (we also have our beloved 6-year-old daughter Michalina). For 9 months of his life, nothing indicated that the worst was to come. Mikołajek did not have any worrying symptoms, he developed properly, was always cheerful, smiling, curious of the world, he never got sick of anything! Then one day, I felt something big and hard in his belly...

Exactly on the 8th of March, the Women's Day, we found out that our son – 9-month-old then – had a huge tumour on his liver! At that moment, it was as if the entire world collapsed! How was it possible? Our healthy, happy Mikołajek? There has to be some mistake!

Unfortunately, the diagnosis was confirmed at the oncology ward in Szczecin, where we went straight from the ultrasound office. For 2 weeks, the doctors did their best to diagnose Mikołaj so that they could match the proper treatment. Unfortunately, no diagnosis matched our case. Only later, the histopathological result gave us the terrifying answer – MALIGNANT RHABDOID TUMOUR. One of the rarest, most aggressive and most treatment-resistant malignancies – soft tissue sarcoma or, in our case, liver sarcoma. Another variety of it often attacks the brain and the type that Mikołaj has affects mainly kidneys, liver and other soft tissues – giving rapid metastases to lungs and head.  Least often, it attacks the liver. In Poland, Mikołaj is probably the only one with this diagnosis.

Currently, Mikołajek is after two surgeries and one reoperation (performed in Gdańsk), insertion of a central line for chemotherapy delivery, insertion of vascular catheters in his thigh, collection of stem cells for autologous transplantation (in Bydgoszcz), numerous CT scans and MRI scans (all under anaesthesia) and a series of 9 very strong cycles of chemotherapy (which was initially planned for 17 weeks, but on the course of treatment my son had various drops in blood parameters, infections and blood transfusions were necessary, which resulted in extending the treatment to 23 weeks).

The first surgery – the most difficult one, with serious complications – took place in March this year in Gdańsk. It lasted 9 hours, but we managed to cut out a 10-cm diameter tumour, a fragment of the liver and an infected lymph node. The next day, our son had to be operated urgently because a 25 mm thrombus had formed in the vena cava. It turned out well! After 5 days in the ICU, his condition stabilised and he could be revived from his coma. We won the life for Mikołajek twice then!

Unfortunately, at the end of the chemotherapy (after the 8th cycle), which Mikołaj started right after the first surgery, the disease recurred – a new focus in the liver appeared. The second surgery took place in Gdańsk once again in September this year. It went without any complications; the nodule was tiny and cut out completely. We thought we had beaten the disease again!

After returning from the second surgery, we finished the last remaining chemotherapy in Szczecin, although it was already known that it did not work on the cancer, because there was a recurrence. So the doctors decided to use a stronger weapon – in October this year, we started preparations for radiotherapy in the Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw. 

Unfortunately, in the meantime came the cruel news that no one expected in such a short time after the surgery – another recurrence, this time as many as five new foci! Our world fell apart into millions of pieces again! Both my husband and I broke down... As a matter of urgency, with our heads drained and our eyes full of tears, we are going back from the CMHI to Szczecin to have a check-up lung scan and head MRI. Waiting for the results is like waiting for a death sentence. It is unbearable! A wonderful radiotherapist from Warsaw decided to speed up radiotherapy for Mikołaj. We start immediately after the imaging tests i.e. 19.10.2021.

We are aware of how difficult opponent we are facing. It has already shown its strength twice. The disease is starting to speed up. We have less and less time to stop it before it reaches Mikołaj's lungs and brain. If I could, I would give my liver to my son at the cost of my own life, but a transplant is not possible. There is no drug in Poland, even for a fee, that would stop these cancer cells.

Therefore, in the meantime, we are looking for help all over the world. For this purpose, we translate medical documentation into English. And we are currently starting consultations at the Children's Hospital in Boston in the USA, as the latest clinical trials on new MRT drugs are being carried out there. The cost of a month's treatment can reach hundreds of thousands of Polish zlotys and we don’t know yet how many months the treatment will last. But this is our only hope. I would never forgive myself if I did not give my child this chance! 

That's why I'm asking you – people with big hearts – for financial support because we won't be able to raise such a sum in such a short time. Please share our story with your friends. I believe that together we will manage to save little Mikołajek, who wants to live so much!

Mum Monika, Dad Michał and Sister Michalinka