The future is still uncertain
Sophie with her dad Tim in Liverpool(Image: Sophie Hutchings)
Sophie Hutchings was just 12 years old when her parents sat her down and told her the devastating news her dad had a rare form of cancer. For the next year she remembers going to the hospital every night after school to see her dad, Tim Hutchings, who was 53 at the time of his diagnosis.
Tim, from Portsmouth, was diagnosed with rare blood cancer multiple myeloma in January 2016, after first starting to showing symptoms just six months earlier. Sophie, who went to university in Liverpool, said: “I was only 12 at the time. I remember he had hip pain but we thought it was just age related, we thought it would be fine, nothing to worry about.
“He’d gone to the doctors and was seeing orthopaedics regularly but they had no answers to what the symptoms were.” Eventually Tim was sent for an MRI scan and “soon after” he had been booked appointments with hematologists, says Sophie.
She added: “When the diagnosis came six months after he started with the symptoms it was such a shock for us all as a family. It was really difficult.
“I found out as I got older that most people with multiple myeloma won’t get diagnosed until they are in their seventies but dad was only 53 at the time. It was really shocking.”
Sophie says the diagnosis came out of nowhere. She said: “He has always been a keen mountain biker, he was fit and healthy, working, life was normal. And me and my brother were so young, he was 14, so it was a lot for us to take in at that age although my parents definitely sheltered us from the really hard parts.”
She remembers visiting her dad in hospital after school as a child(Image: @nicolebavers)
Tim started chemotherapy immediately and was asked to take part in a clinical trial with Anthony Nolan, a UK charity that works in the areas of leukaemia and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, because of his young age.
He agreed and had a donor cell transplant through the trial, which terrifyingly had a 25-50% mortality rate. Sophie said: “Hearing those figures were really shocking, but I didn’t find this out until I was older.
“From my dad’s point of view he could have chemotherapy and maybe never get the cancer in remission. But, this trial was designed to give him a second chance, a chance to get the cancer into remission and live a normal life again.
“I just remember it meant we were going to the hospital every day after school. He had the transplant in April 2018 and it thankfully sent the cancer into a full remission. He was in hospital for around three months and then spent the next seven years living a normal life.”
Tim got to see his son Callum, 23, join the Navy and become an air engineer and his daughter Sophie get into medical school at University of Liverpool during that time. Sophie said: “It was a life goal of mine to become a medical student.
“I had always been good at science, I found biology interesting at school and I had an introduction to medicine because my mum is a vet nurse. Then when everything happened to dad I saw what doctors could do for people’s lives and it made my mind up that I wanted to work with medicine. My dad was so proud of me when I got into medical school – and my brother when he joined the navy.
“He became himself again and it was so nice. He did everything, went back to social events, went paragliding and even married his now wife, Jo, which we never thought he would be able to do seven years ago.”
Sadly, in January 2024 Tim relapsed after a blood test revealed the cancer has returned. He started on treatment again immediately and is continuing to have donor lymphocyte infusions.
Tim with his family at his wedding last year(Image: @nicolebavers)
Sophie says she doesn’t know if her dad will ever get back into a full remission, however at the moment he is “stable.” She said: “It’s difficult to tell what will happen with the type of cancer he has. Nobody expects anyone to live that long with this cancer, it’s a bit of trial and error. It’s scary but we always look for the positives.”
Following her dad’s diagnosis Sophie has now become the president of Liverpool Marrow, Anthony Nolan’s network of student volunteer groups.
She said: “When I moved to Liverpool for university I’d gone to the fresher’s fair and walked past the staff for Liverpool Marrow. If hadn’t of already been so involved with Anthony Nolan I don’t think I would have ever of heard of it or of gone over to the stall but I felt like I couldn’t just walk past it or not say anything because the charity had had such an impact on my family’s lives.
“I ended up joining as a volunteer, then ended up on the committee and now I’m president. The group’s work is so important because it’s aimed at recruiting young healthy donors for stem health and it could save lives.”
To find out more about Anthony Nolan, to donate or register, click here.