MEET Alfie Allen – the boy who can never drink.
Born with Down's syndrome and two holes in his heart, the plucky five-year-old was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2006 and the resulting chemotherapy sessions confined him to a wheelchair and left him unable to drink.
His mother Sophie and his teachers have to be on constant guard as any liquid that passes Alfie's lips could go straight into his lungs and drown him.
“If he drank a glass of water it could drown him,” said Sophie. “The chemotherapy just completely destroyed him. He knows he's not allowed to have water but when he has a bath he tries to drink the water because he feels so thirsty.”
Alfie, who lives in Ruskin Avenue, Feltham, has to have all his fluids passed through a special tube straight into his stomach but, after a tough start in life, things finally seem to be on the up for him.
In January his cancer was found to be in remission, he has started at the Linden Bennett school in Hanworth, been to Disneyland in Florida and has even featured on a CBBC TV show.
A film crew came to Alfie's house in May to film an episode of new programme Show Me, Show Me, which started on children's channel CBeebies on Monday (July 6).
But the biggest smile of the year was brought to Alfie's face when friends and family raised enough money to send him, his three-year-old brother Frankie and his parents to Disneyland, Florida on holiday.
Sophie said: “He absolutely loved it. Friends and family were rallying round to get him this trip of a lifetime because he has had such a hard time since he was born.
“It's been difficult but I have got a very supportive family around me. Without them I don't know where I would have been.”
Children with Down's syndrome are more susceptible to leukaemia and often feel the side effects of chemotherapy more acutely but also recover better due to a genetic mutation unique to those with Down's syndrome.
For Sophie and dad Matthew life is now about looking forward to a better future for their son, with the first goal to get Alfie out of his wheelchair and walking for the first time.
“The aim is to get him mobile but he's not very confident because he has spent so much time in hospital beds,” said Sophie. “In terms of the cancer, it's just a waiting game – we take every day as it comes.”
