The family of a poorly Wednesbury boy, Tommy-Rae, speak about him, his love for the ocean and the need for more Cancer Research money to be diverted to Children's Cancer.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 So how does it feel that everyone's outside here today?
00:04 Amazing. Everybody's done fantastic.
00:07 Fantastic.
00:08 And it's just, you know, it's like a big family around here, isn't it?
00:12 It is definitely family. Everybody is family.
00:16 And we've done so much for our community as well,
00:19 and for them to give it back to us like this.
00:22 This is above and beyond.
00:23 Yeah.
00:24 We've seen Delilah.
00:26 And Shannon was saying, Tommy, he's the riding, isn't he, on Delilah?
00:30 Yes.
00:31 He's a big animal lover, isn't he, Tommy?
00:33 Yes.
00:34 We ride the horse. We're more on the same field as Shannon.
00:36 We're more together.
00:37 Yeah.
00:38 Oh, you've got a horse as well?
00:39 Yeah, yeah.
00:40 Yeah.
00:41 Shannon's Tommy's horse, yeah.
00:42 Yeah, yeah.
00:43 But yeah, if you give me your details,
00:46 we'll send you some pictures out for Tommy on the horse.
00:49 Yeah.
00:50 Tommy's a very, very big animal lover.
00:52 He loves everything animal-orientated.
00:54 Just had his birthday, we had a massive animal show.
00:58 We had a bearded giant dragon the size of the bathtub.
01:03 We had leaping frogs.
01:05 There was children everywhere.
01:07 Every animal, snake, everything you can think of
01:10 was in this living room in Kitchi.
01:12 What's his favourite animal, would you say?
01:14 He likes the hogs.
01:15 He likes the dragon.
01:16 Yeah, I saw that.
01:17 Oh, has he got a bearded? Oh, he's got his own lizard.
01:19 Yeah, yeah. He's just lying there having a sneeze.
01:21 He's got a pig, he's got a water dragon.
01:23 He's got dogs.
01:24 Dogs, he's...
01:25 Yeah.
01:26 When did you know that he was really into animals?
01:29 How could you tell when?
01:31 From a young age.
01:32 We had a dog when I was pregnant with Tommy,
01:34 I brought a dog, and then...
01:36 Tommy's just had a dog every year since.
01:38 Yeah.
01:39 He loves the ocean as well.
01:41 He studies everything.
01:42 Hence the sea theme on the window.
01:44 Yeah, if you do him, you just come around him
01:47 and he'll be like, "That's a crap."
01:49 He could tell you more about the ocean
01:51 than anybody in his group.
01:52 No way.
01:53 The teacher says, "We just can't believe it."
01:55 Yeah.
01:56 The doctors at the hospital, he's got tons of creatures
01:59 and he told everyone exactly what it is.
02:02 It's an orca, it's a shark, it's a white shark.
02:05 He can tell you the difference between every animal in the ocean.
02:08 Crabs.
02:09 No.
02:10 No.
02:11 He's a big, big...
02:14 He loves the ocean.
02:15 And he loves anything animal-y, doesn't he?
02:18 How did he...
02:19 What was his reaction when he met his little sister?
02:22 Not great.
02:27 Yeah.
02:28 It's the gelatine thing.
02:31 We did say, "Shall we take her back?"
02:33 And he said, "No."
02:35 No.
02:36 Did he?
02:37 Yeah, right.
02:38 Yeah.
02:39 He's got his own little...
02:40 He was excited to meet a big, big shark.
02:42 Yeah.
02:43 He was.
02:44 He was.
02:45 We've still got a rattly picture.
02:48 From a long time ago, before we even found out he was having a sister,
02:52 he told us he wants a sister and this rattles for his sister.
02:56 He is having a sister.
02:59 We'd better get a sister.
03:01 Yeah, yeah.
03:02 Maybe.
03:03 Yeah, he better have a family there.
03:05 Thank you.
03:06 Thank you all so much.
03:07 I really appreciate it.
03:08 For aiming for...
03:09 Go on.
03:10 Go on then, Nan.
03:11 Go on.
03:12 Literally 3% of all cancer research goes to children's brain tumours.
03:19 3%?
03:21 3%, which is nothing.
03:24 The chance of survival with a tumour of that is almost zero.
03:29 And why?
03:30 Why is that?
03:31 Since we've been in, in seven weeks,
03:33 we've probably seen 35 kids,
03:36 ranging from newborn babies to 16-year-olds.
03:40 They shouldn't have to go 18-year-olds.
03:43 They shouldn't be doing that.
03:45 We've got breast cancer, we've got screening.
03:48 Every other aspect of cancer is covered.
03:51 Why not these kids?
03:53 That's--we could be helped now, but everybody else can't.
03:57 That's our aim.
03:59 To raise more awareness about children and, you know,
04:02 even teenagers' brain tumours.
04:04 They need, they literally need more research.
04:07 There's no research.
04:09 So if there's no funds, there's no research,
04:12 why is an hospital having to raise funds
04:15 and pay companies to raise funds for them for an IMR on screen?
04:19 That money should be situated towards them.
04:23 Why should they have to keep fighting and raising money?
04:26 The government should just give it to our children.
04:28 It should--these are the children.
04:30 Why would we want to give it to a different country to get a war?
04:33 We've got our own kids, we'll go out and get cured.
04:36 No, it is ridiculous when you put it like that.
04:39 You've got a 4-year-old doing lovely,
04:41 he could have been a marine biologist,
04:43 he could have been saving you in 20 years' time.
04:46 But no, because there's nothing there for him, no awareness.
04:50 No, here we are.
04:52 No funding.
04:54 This is--if there's anything that our baby deserves,
04:58 it's to raise awareness for somebody else.
05:00 So that is our mission.
05:02 Good, I'm all for sharing that with them.
05:04 Yeah, I know.