Nine-Year-Old Boy Celebrates Beating One of the Rarest Forms of Cancer Ever Recorded

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A nine-year-old boy named Saul Hayden, of Cheshire, England, is celebrating having beaten one of the world’s rarest forms of liver cancer after going through an incredibly risky liver auto-transplant.

Saul was diagnosed with stage 4 MRT (malignant rhabdoid tumor) a disease of which only 5 out of 53 people in the world have survived according to a study in the journal Pediatric Reports.

“It has been the hardest year of our life,” mom Vicki Kay-Spruce told Northwich Guardian. “This cancer took over everything we have done.”

However, what made the news so devastating was that it came without any prior warning. In April 2019, Saul, a healthy boy who loved playing video games and hanging out with friends after school, began to complain of stomach pains and loss of appetite, which led to his mother discovering a “strange lump” in his belly. He was then taken to the A&E at Warrington Hospital, where an ultrasound picked up a mass on his liver. On April 23, 2019, after being referred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, the mother of two found out that her son had cancer.

“By the time we found [the cancer], it had already spread up the artery to his heart, to his lung as well,” she told SWNS.

For Vicki, the idea of someone so young getting such a deadly disease was surreal. “It’s terrifying because there were no real signs and he seemed fine,” she told the Northwich Guardian. “He was given a poor prognosis because of how aggressive [MRT] is. This cancer can change quickly and react to treatment in a bad way.”

In order to be able to do surgery, doctors first needed to reduce the size of the tumor in Saul’s liver, and this required “13 rounds of powerful chemotherapy, 11 rounds of radiotherapy, stem cell harvests, he had multiple infections and even 4 adult teeth removed at [A]lder [H]ey [Children’s Hospital],” Vicki wrote on the Just Giving page.

After more than 80 days of chemotherapy, a scan in August 2019 revealed that Saul’s tumor had reduced to an operable size. However, Saul wasn’t yet out of the woods, as mom Vicki explained. On Sept. 18, 2019, at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, “[h]e had an auto-transplant, which is where they take the liver out, chop [the cancerous cells] away and put it back in,” she told SWNS.

The procedure was incredibly risky and “very rarely done.”

Not only was Saul’s liver removed and put back inside his body, but he also received transplants from two adult donors for the artery leading from his liver to his heart. “They were worried he wouldn’t make it at all,” Vicki told the Northwich Guardian. “I was told one in ten adults don’t survive this type of operation so it was even riskier for him.”

An emotional Vicki said, “I can’t put into words what it has been like for us.”

However, Saul managed to pull through, and after more radiation and chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancerous cells, he was declared free of the disease in February 2020. “I don’t know how but he has found the strength from somewhere to keep smiling through everything,” his mom shared.

Now that Saul has been cleared, his mother is hoping to raise enough money to give him the trip of a lifetime to the United States. While that plan is on hold because of the pandemic, the crowdfunding campaign has already raised over 5,800 pounds (US$7,188). According to Saul’s mom, his dream is “to see the new Star Wars world [Galaxy’s Edge] and meet all his favorite superheroes!”

For a boy who has been through as much as Saul has, Vicki feels like it’s the least she can do for him. “He is the most amazing person I have ever met,” she told the Northwich Guardian. “The way he has fought this is just incredible.”