Nathan Dyer

8-year-old Nathan Dyer was diagnosed in May 2004 with a Wilm’s Tumour (kidney). His left kidney was removed and he underwent chemotherapy to prevent the tumour from spreading to his other organs. Nathan has a little sister Tyler-Linda (pictured) and two older brothers, Matthew 16yrs and Cory 14yrs.

Nathan’s Mum Lianne describes him as “a pretty quiet kid, a bit shy at first but very personable one to one and an affectionate and sensitive young man who is very brave”. Before his surgery Nathan told an anxious Lianne, “don’t worry Mum, I’ll be fine.” It was this quiet will power and determination that Lianne believes has seen him through.

A Family Support person from the Blenheim branch of Child Cancer Foundation contacted Nathan’s family soon after his diagnosis. Lianne had to give up work for 4 months (she was contracted to manage a dry cleaners so found herself in a predicament when she left). “My husband (Mike) is self-employed so financially this time was a huge strain. We went to Blenheim hospital every week for certain parts of treatment but had to travel to Christchurch every three weeks so that Nathan could receive other parts of his treatment. The Child Cancer Foundation helped us out on a very practical level, for example they gave us petrol vouchers so that we could make the trips to Christchurch and food vouchers to ease the burden. A member of the Foundation phoned us regularly to make sure we were coping okay. It was so good to know the support was there. Our friends were also wonderful.”

Nathan is progressing well. His chemotherapy treatments stopped in December 2004. He is now in the “recovery” period, which means for next 18 months he will have 3-monthly checkups. If all is well after this time may be considered to be in remission.