A Boy Finds Joy During His Cancer Battle
- A 5-year-old boy, Henry, went viral after an adorable video of him celebrating the end of leukemia treatment began making the rounds online.
- Hundreds of thousands of viewers were touched by Henry’s ability to make the most of a difficult situation.
- Leukemia is the most common cancer diagnosed in children, with most cases being a specific type of the disease called acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).
- ALLs make up about 3 out of 4 cases of childhood leukemia.
Henry Furham is seen in a clip, posted by nonprofit Little Wishes, ringing chemo bells and being showered in confetti as he celebrates the end of treatment with his family and the hospital staff. The Today Show reposted the heartwarming clip, and it has received nearly 150,000 likes since going up just a few weeks ago.
Read MoreView this post on Instagram
Henry’s joy in the face of adversity has warmed the hearts of thousands across the web and the celebrations will continue in the coming months, according to the outlet. Thanks to Make-A-Wish, Henry will get to experience a VIP Disney vacation in October.
His story is especially touching because going through cancer can be particularly isolating for children faced with the disease, as well as their families.
What to Know About Leukemia in Children
Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and teens, according to the American Cancer Society. It accounts for almost 1 out of 3 pediatric cancers. Most of these cancers are a type of leukemia called acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), which starts in the early forms of white blood cells called lymphocytes. ALLs make up about 3 out of 4 cases of childhood leukemia. Acute myeloid leukemias (AML) make up most of the remaining cases, and chronic leukemias are rare in children. AMLs begin in the myeloid cells that normally form white blood cells (other than lymphocytes), red blood cells, or platelets.
“When we talk about leukemia, that means one of the types of white blood cells is growing out of proportion to the others and in general, that’s the definition of cancer,” Dr. Nina Shah, a hematologist at the University of California San Francisco, told SurvivorNet in a previous conversation about how blood cancers begin.
Dr. Nina Shah explains the different categories of leukemia.
“One cell got really selfish and decided that it needed to take up all the resources of everybody else and in doing so, took up space and energy from the rest of the body,” she explained. “So in this case, some of the white blood cells will start to grow out of proportion, and that’s what’s known as a leukemia. Now, if it’s a kind of leukemia that grows really, really quickly, we call it an acute leukemia. And if it’s a kind of leukemia that grows over several years, we call it a chronic leukemia.”
Pediatric ALL is most commonly diagnosed in early childhood, between the ages of 2 and 5, while AML tends to be more spread out. It is slightly more common in the first 2 years of life and during teenage years.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
