This site is a tribute to Rhys Rodway, who was born in Taunton on June 06, 2012. He is much loved and will always be remembered.

On monday july 16th 2018 we took Rhys into the doctors as we concerned with his left eye turning in , we were sent to musgrove park hospital (MPH) for an emergency MRI scan and further checks at the eye clinic later that afternoon we were told that Rhys had a 5cm brain tumour and we were being blue lighted to Bristol childrens hospital(BCH) high dependency ward .
Tuesday 17th july Rhys had his first surgery to have a shunt installed to relieve pressure build up. The operation went well and Rhys recovered from it quite quickly.
Wednesday 18th july Rhy to have his first (BCH) MRI Scan to see if shunt is working and it was but the tumour had grown significantly.
Monday 23rd july Rhys has to have surgery today to hopefully remove all of the tumour it's a long operation with huge complications involved after 10 hours Rhys is back on ward recovering. The surgeon could not remove all of the tumor but did remove a walnut sized piece and biopsy samples .
From here our memories blur for dates with bad news from the biopsy results ,we were told diffuse midline glioma a stage 4 tumour and with a survival of 12 months with radiotherapy & chemotherapy or 2 months if we wished not to use treatment .
So we went ahead 4 weeks after the operation with the 30 days of radiotherapy with the combined chemotherapy being fully aware that how poorly this treatment was make Rhys feel.
The plan of the treatment is to reduce the tumour left in or to stabilise it while treatment is underway Rhys managed to not have to have any general anaesthetic he laid clipped down by his head mask to the bed without a problem.
We had to wait 4 weeks post radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment to see If the treatment had worked with an MRI scan , we had the result of shrinkage which is good news .
For 12 months after Rhys is going to be on a increased dose of chemotherapy treatment plan with 3 monthly MRI scans and the we were going to back with Mugrove Park hospital .
Having had shrinkage results and stable results we get a bad result of progression from a MRI scan not a result we wanted to hear . So just before round 12 of his chemotherapy doctors told us his chemo is not working and going to stop it .
We were ask by the doctors if from now if we just wanted to keep Rhys comfortable until the brain cancer wins or try something else.
We decided to go forward and to get more treatment for Rhys .
Rhys has now been put under the care of bristol again and that a new trail drug chemo is going to be given to Rhys .
Rhys is now on the trail drug he is the 20th person in the world to receive the drug with a total of 64 going to get it.
Rhys had to have a operation to install a hickman line or a wiggly line for his treatment to be administered.
We have to take Rhys to bristol for the treatment every week, on week 8 of the trail Rhys will have a MRI scan to see if the trail drug is working. Unfortunately the MRI showed growth the treatment didn't help we decided to try a different chemo that we were advised could make Rhys very poorly as Rhys was well in himself we decided we had to try it. Rhys didn't get poorly on any of the chemos or treatments that he was on younwouldnt even know he was poorly. 
On 15th December 2019 Rhys graded for this red belt in karate even tho the scans suggest he shouldn't be able to even walk or have any balance he did. 
Rhys had a routine appointment st bristol childrens hospital on 2nd jan he walked in to the hospital he was a bit tired he had a cold so was a bit under the weather doctors took his bloods and gave him some fluids then said he was free to go home. Rhys them went down hill he got up and was sick then flopped over to one side in the chair we put him into bed he asked for his girls (sisters) he gave then both a cuddle them went to sleep. Rhys has 2 seizures in his sleep and didn't wake up again. 
Rhys passed away on 3.1.20 after having a seizure