"It quite literally saved him"
How carp fishing helped one Dorset teenager through gruelling brain tumour treatment
‘On the afternoon of his 15th birthday, they told him he had cancer,’ said 44-year-old Hayley, mother of brain tumour survivor Ryan. ‘I begged the consultants to wait and tell him the next day, but they said he needed to start treatment immediately. There was no time to wait.’
Ryan had been a sporty, fun, outgoing 14-year-old who loved rugby, football and fishing, when he began complaining of frequent headaches and exhaustion in April 2020. ‘At first we thought he could be struggling with the COVID restrictions,’ remembers Hayley. ‘He has a great group of friends and loved being outside, so it made sense that he’d hate being locked in the house. But soon I knew it was more than that.’
Hayley and Ryan endured months of back-and-forth medical appointments throughout spring and summer of 2020. ‘They thought it could be migraines, eyes problems, maybe referred pain from an old injury,’ said Hayley. ‘They gave him all sorts of medication to try and exercises to do in his room, but nothing worked. He was in so much pain and only getting worse. In early September, the weight started to fall off him. It was like I was watching him deteriorate before my eyes. Within two weeks, I could see his bones.’
On the 15th September 2020, Hayley took her son to Salisbury Hospital where they were again prescribed sickness medication and physiotherapy. Hayley remembers: ‘I took him back home and we gave it 48 hours, but he was still getting worse. I said - “this is nuts, I’m taking him back in”. It was mother’s intuition. I just knew something was really, really wrong.’
After scans picked up a lesion on Ryan’s brain, a biopsy was arranged for 24th September – Ryan's fifteenth birthday. It was confirmed that he had nasopharyngeal carcinoma - an extremely rare and difficult-to-detect cancer that occurs behind the nose and back of the throat.
‘Everything changed,’ said Hayley. ‘It was a whirlwind from that point on. They told us they were going to hit it hard and hit it fast, because we only had one chance to get it right. If this treatment didn’t work, there would be nothing else they could do. Right from the beginning, Ryan was so resilient. I asked how he was feeling, and he said: “There’s no point worrying, it won’t change anything, so I’ve just got to get on with it. The doctors get paid to worry – not me!”’
After three rounds of high dose chemotherapy at Southampton Hospital, Ryan was transferred to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester to begin proton beam therapy; an advanced form of treatment that uses a high-energy beam of protons to deliver radiotherapy. It was there that Ryan began his own form of therapy – watching fishing videos. Hayley said: ‘When he was at his worst, when he could barely move and was nauseous all the time, he would sit in bed with his headphones on to drown out the noise of the machines and just watch carp fishing videos. He’d always enjoyed carp fishing – we've got beautiful lakes near us, so the videos were like meditation. He was taking himself out of the treatment room, away from all the wires and chemo bags, to be by the lake.
Radiotherapy can cause amnesia, but Ryan would sit there for hours and re-learn how to remake his fishing knots, teaching himself with the videos. The social workers said that he didn’t need therapy – he'd found his own. The thought of being back at the lake, being able to fish again – it quite literally saved him.’
Back home in Dorset, Ryan’s health started to slowly improve. ‘The first time his Dad took him to the lake, we wrapped him up in loads of blankets and he was only there for a few hours,’ said Hayley. ‘But when they came back, he just looked like Ryan again. Bit by bit, that pull to the lake – it was bringing him back to life.’
When the charity Make-A-Wish UK got in touch, Ryan knew exactly what he wanted to wish for. ‘To have a fishing bivvy would mean that Ryan could always go carp fishing, no matter the weather, no matter the time of year,’ said Hayley. ‘It meant he could always go to his happy place. He’d never have to be away from it again.’
In March 2022, Make-A-Wish UK granted Ryan’s wish for his chosen bivvy, along with fishing-themed wall prints and gift vouchers to Angling Direct. Hayley said: ‘Ryan’s face lit up like you wouldn’t believe when he got his wish! He’d always enjoyed fishing, even before he fell ill, but it’s taken on a whole other meaning now. He won’t ever be able to play rugby again due to the risk of head injury, which is very sad, but carp fishing has given him something else to focus on and helped him feel like himself again. Having all this new equipment and a bivvy from Make-A-Wish UK means that he can go fishing whenever he wants – it's like he has his wish granted all over again every time he goes.’
Ryan’s wish has been granted, but 503 UK children like Ryan are still living with a critical condition and waiting for their wish. Some of these children have been waiting for years, and some may not have long left. Make-A-Wish UK hopes to raise £1.2 million by World Wish Day (29th April 2022) - a figure which it says is needed to grant each wish still waiting.
Steph Sherwood, Wish Delivery Lead at Make-A-Wish UK, said: ‘As Ryan’s story shows, a wish really can bring light and joy back to children and families in their darkest times. Right now, more than 60,000 children in the UK have been diagnosed with a critical condition and are eligible for a wish. That number is set to increase by over a third in the next 10 years.
We want to grant the wish of every eligible child but, right now, we cannot even grant the 503 wishes of children currently waiting. By donating at https://www.make-a-wish.org.
Now in remission, Ryan has started his own Instagram account to document his carp fishing adventures. Although the family will need to remain alert to long-term side-effects of radiation therapy, chances of reoccurrence are slim, and Ryan’s prognosis is good. ‘When Ryan was diagnosed, it was like a cannonball had slammed into my chest,’ said Hayley. ‘But to see him come through that is very special. It makes you realise what’s important, and it’s very simple. If you have good health for you and your family, you have all you need.
When I think back to when Ryan was very sick, I know that the love of fishing got him from there to where he is today. I cannot begin to say how amazing it’s been for healing his soul. Everybody in this world needs something to look forward to – and fishing was that for Ryan.’
To donate to Make-A-Wish UK and light up the darkness for children like Ryan, visit https://www.make-a-wish.org.
