Today, Keil Guthrie is a happy and ambitious 11-year-old boy, who has dreams of becoming a pilot. When looking at his bright smile, you would never guess that he has already faced the challenge of a lifetime – a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
His father, Kriston, says that the story of his son’s cancer journey started with a football trip that his brother was on in July 2019, during which Keil’s neck began to swell.
“Quite a few people had the flu on this trip, and we thought he might have a bit of the flu or something similar.”
Kriston said that when his son’s neck started to swell on the other side, they decided they needed to go back to the doctor. The doctor ran tests to try and determine what
was going on with Keil. As the family waited for his results, Kriston remembers Keil had back-to-back rugby games one weekend that left him exhausted.
“We took him back into the doctors, and they sent us up to the hospital for tests, and then we went home. They then told us to come back in – I think it was a Thursday. There was a paediatrician over from Christchurch, and she took one look at him, and she goes, ‘I’m sorry to say, but there’s a 99% chance that he could have leukaemia.’”
The Guthrie family was understandably devastated at this news. Even though Keil was only ten years old at the time of his diagnosis, the gravity of the situation was not lost on him. Kriston says that his son’s reaction to the news was gut-wrenching.
“Keil was sitting there listening, and he goes ‘Dad, I don’t want to die.’”
As hard as those words must have been to hear, the Guthries bound together and fought against the situation in the same way – as a family. While their son was undergoing treatment at Christchurch Hospital, Kriston and his wife, Melia, had to balance work and supporting their other two children, Payton and Keton. Keil’s two siblings lived in Greymouth with their grandparents during this challenging time, as Melia spent ten months with Keil, in hospital.
The hospital said “after those ten months, because he had gone through most of the cycles, that we could go home for brief periods. So, he was coming home for, say, five days, and then he would spend two weeks over there, at the hospital. He got onto the maintenance programme after twelve months.”
When asked about LBC, Kriston said that Christchurch-based Support Services Coordinator, Matt Eby was in touch right after Keil’s diagnosis and provided invaluable
assistance.
“He offered us the support we wanted, and he would always check up on us and invite us around to have a yarn and that. He did a wonderful job. I don’t know if you realise it makes such a big difference, just having different people to talk to. Especially when they have a good understanding of what you are going through.”