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Joy as Luke goes back to school
ROMSEY'S Hartley family this reached their greatest milestone when eight-year-old Luke went back to Romsey Abbey Primary School.
Luke is the youngest of the four brothers who've fought their way back to fitness after bone marrow transplants for a rare genetic condition.
And after a heart-warming welcome from staff and classmates, his mum, Allison, said: "He was just brimming with excitement and was smiling from ear to ear. When you're that age, your friends are so important to you and Luke is a very sociable child who is in a lovely class.."
Luke was accompanied by Allison and her husband, David, on his way in to a "happy return" chat with headteacher, Jane Everard and Mrs Hartley said: "She was lovely. She welcomed him back to school and told him they had been praying for him.
"It was such a big milestone for us and we had big lumps in our throats when we went to the classroom with the head. We could tell the children were getting excited, too, and you could hear them saying: He's coming! He's coming!'."
The plan was for Luke to go to school during the mornings for the rest of the term, but Mrs Hartley said: "When he came home at lunchtime, he was chatting away about all the things he'd been doing and he said he wanted to go for the whole day."
Now all four boys have returned to school, Mr and Mrs Hartley are hoping that the nightmare which began almost five years ago is over.
They were given the numbing news by doctors in November, 2003, that their four sons were suffering from life-threatening x-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome and would need bone marrow transplants.
In March, 2004, they launched an appeal for donors and by October, 2005, Joshua, now 16, Daniel, 12, and Nathan, 14, had had their transplants at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
That just left Luke and his first transplant, in May 2007, failed to take. His second, last December, was a success, but he was struck by illness in the spring and spent April, May and much of June in hospital.
Finally, he returned to the family's home in Winchester Road and he was given the all-clear last week to go back to Romsey Abbey Primary School after 14 months away.
David described the day as an "historic" one for his family and explained: "His immune system recovered sufficiently that the medical team looking after him agreed he could go back part-time. This hopefully now marks the near-end of Luke's trials."
Meanwhile Joshua, the oldest of the four boys, has just finished battling his way through GCSE examinations at The Romsey School, despite having had a succession of medical hurdles to clear since his transplant back in June, 2004.
There was also good news regarding Joshua, with the family told he was not still suffering from the transplant-related Guest Versus Host' disease (GVHD), but from a form of pneumonia. He is also having treatment for a skin condition.
9:26am Friday 11th July 2008
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