‘ My son's earache turned out to be cancer'

Liz Cunningham, 48, an assistant head teacher in Liverpool, was devastated by her son’s shock diagnosis. But his brave fight against cancer has been boosted by some of his footie heroes

- LIAM McINERNEY

Dishing up plates of beans on toast, I smiled as the front door swung open with a bang. Right on time, my younger son Thomas, 11, clattered in with a ball at his feet. “Your muddy boots!” I yelled. I didn’t want him walking dirt all through the house.

“We won 3-0 and I scored twice,” he announced, dumping the boots on the floor. I smiled. Thomas lived and breathed football and was the star striker in his local team. “Oh, and I got man of the match,” he grinned, sitting down for his lunch.

“Well done, Salah,” I laughed. “Eat this, then go and shower.”

I watched as Thomas, 11, demolished his food then rushed upstairs. Later I heard him watching a Liverpool match on TV with his big brother Joseph, 15. He was obsessed with Liverpool and even had trials there once.

Becoming a professional footballer was Thomas’s dream. If he wasn’t playing with his team he was busy practising. His dad Peter, 51, and I were divorced, but Thomas saw him all the time and he and the boys would knock a ball about together. “You’re football mad,” I’d tease.

But in March this year, after we went into lockdown because of the coronavirus, I noticed a change in him. He went from having a ball at his feet every day to slouching in front of the TV. Then he trudged downstairs one morning in April looking pale and tired.

“My chest and back feel sore,” he told me. “You must be coming down with a nasty bug,” I said, giving him some Calpol. He perked up after that and was soon playing footie around the house. But a few days later, he was lethargic again.