'I was crying for ages - telling Owen was the hardest bit for us,' - mum's reaction when son, 8, was diagnosed with cancer

Owen Pattison and his siblings, of Yeadon, are now calling on others to stage their own breakfasts for Cancer Research UK next month.

Dressed in night caps and in a luxury four poster bed at Weetwood Hall Hotel, Leeds, Owen, along with Ollie, aged four, Kyle, seven, Vinny, 11, Luke,15, and Ryan, 16, enjoyed a fun breakfast-in-bed session.

They were helping to launch a fundraising campaign calling on supporters to host or attend a breakfast party on Friday, March 11, or any time during the month.

Mum Michelle, 34, said: "With six lively boys, it’s a big breakfast every morning in our house, but after seeing their brother going through cancer they all wanted to support him by helping Cancer Research UK in rallying local people to organise their own Biggest Breakfast."

Owen, who attends Yeadon Westfield Junior School, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, the most common type of childhood leukaemia, just before Christmas 2014. He initially underwent intensive chemotherapy and is now on maintenance treatment, which consists of daily oral chemo at home and monthly chemo at Leeds Children’s Hospital. This will continue until April 2018.

It was during the summer of 2014 when Owen had first started to complain about leg pains, which gradually got worse over the next few month and led to him waking up in tears.

Michelle, a part time nail technician said: "We took Owen to see our GP who said they would refer him to hospital. We were waiting for an appointment, but after he was sent home from school with shoulder pains, our GP told us to take him straight there.

"We spent the whole day there having tests and it was initially thought Owen might have juvenile arthritis. We went back for the results next morning and they told us it wasn’t arthritis, but weren’t sure what it was, so he was going to have an MRI scan. Then just before 4pm his dad, Steve, and I were given the news that Owen had leukaemia and he was to stay in hospital and start treatment that night.

"We were both totally shocked. I was crying for ages and when I looked up I saw Steve was in bits. From that moment I knew I had to hold it together and be the strong one for both of us, and of course for the boys.

"We then had to go through the difficult process of telling Owen’s brothers, starting with the oldest two, Ryan and Luke, then the younger ones over the next couple of days.

"But it was telling Owen was the hardest bit for us. He knew I had been crying, but when I told him all he said was 'so am I going to lose my hair'. I said probably yes, and he just started laughing - and that was it. Owen is the strongest willed, he doesn’t let anything get him down, so of all the six boys I knew he would be the best to cope with something like this."

Cancer Research UK’s Britain’s Biggest Breakfast pack contains posters, decorations, recipe suggestions and fundraising ideas. Visit cruk.org/breakfast for a free pack.