{"id":106789,"date":"2025-05-16T17:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T17:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/106789\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T17:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T17:08:12","slug":"mum-who-knew-sons-cough-was-something-more-was-in-denial-when-doctors-looked-at-x-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/106789\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum who ‘knew’ son’s cough was ‘something more’ was in denial when doctor’s looked at x-ray"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Molyneux opened up about the emotional rollercoaster of the last four-years of her son’s life\"ZakiZaki Gubran with his sister Zahra meeting Lightning McQueen(Image: Joe Howarth )<\/p>\n

Zaki Gubran isn\u2019t your average four-year-old. The young Garston lad<\/a> has been through a lot more than most his age. He spent the first few years of his life in and out of the hospital, because of what initially was believed to be a cough infection.<\/p>\n

However, as mum Caitlin Molyneux explained to the ECHO<\/a>, the real reason was actually much worse. The 26-year-old said: \u201cZaki was crawling and sitting up and doing everything you expect.<\/p>\n

“But then, all of a sudden, he stopped it. He wouldn\u2019t eat, he was just sleeping a lot – all day, every day. At the time, it was Covid-19<\/a>, so they just thought it was because he had a cough and gave him antibiotics over the phone. They didn\u2019t see him in person, but a week later, he still had the cough. He wasn\u2019t doing anything, he wasn\u2019t his usual self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still concerned, Caitlin rang the doctors again and was advised to go to Alder Hey Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a>. However, when she got there, she was told something similar as previously and sent home with a throat spray for her little boy, who was then 11 months old.<\/p>\n

\"ZakiZaki Gubran meeting some of his favourite heroes(Image: Joe Howarth )<\/p>\n

Caitlin, who is also mum to six-year-old Zahra, said: \u201cA week later, again we were still in the same position. So I just started making a little bit of noise and told them I knew it was more. I wasn\u2019t leaving until I got an X-ray.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, we knew there was something on the scan, but we weren\u2019t sure what. But the doctors realised it was a really large mass that covered his entire chest area. He had a collapsed windpipe, two blood clots in the side of his neck, and his whole chest was a tumour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t remember much about the time because I was so in denial. You just smile and laugh it off awkwardly. It didn\u2019t hit me until a couple of months later, the severity of it just put me into mum-mode. Whereas before, my mind was just blank. I couldn\u2019t think much about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While receiving treatment for his initial diagnosis, the Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School<\/a> pupil received a secondary cancer diagnosis. At not even a year old, it was confirmed Zaki had thymoma, making him \u201cthe youngest child in the UK ever to have it\u201d, according to Caitlin, and also lymphoma.<\/p>\n

\"ZakiZaki Gubran and his sister Zahra spent time with Cinderella(Image: Joe Howarth )<\/p>\n

Caitlin said: \u201cI don\u2019t know how we\u2019ve made it this far. It\u2019s been a long few years, but it comes to an end soon. He rings the bell on June 10. I\u2019m nervous about it with all this adrenaline. We have a big celebration planned for him that weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caitlin spoke to ECHO <\/a>while she, Marvel fan Zaki, and other family members were at Disney\u2019s Make A Wish event<\/a>. Now in its fifth year, the three-day experience brings the happiness, joy and the magic of Disney to children living with critical illness in the UK.<\/p>\n

This May, over 200 families will be welcomed to Hoar Cross Hall in Staffordshire for a magical immersive trip. The venue will be transformed into an enchanted manor, where wishes will be granted to hundreds of children, including Zaki, living with critical illnesses, over the course of 12 days.<\/p>\n

Zaki\u2019s aunt, Courtney, 27, said: \u201cThe trip has been so good for him and all the other kids. They are so overwhelmed because there is so much to do. He\u2019s met all the princesses, Stitch, Buzz, Woody, Winnie the Pooh – nearly all of them. He was absolutely made up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see him now, for us to get this far, is incredible. At the start, it was just meetings after meetings about his care, and it was bad news after bad news, it\u2019s been a journey. When he rings that bell I will be crying my heart out.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Molyneux opened up about the emotional rollercoaster of the last four-years of her son’s lifeZaki Gubran with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[48885,748,823,393,2643,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-106789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-alder-hey-childrens-hospital","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-disney","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-garston","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-liverpool","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114518616529811498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}