‘It’s the worst thing any parent could go through’: Northampton dad’s heartbreak as teenage son battles rare cancer
A Northampton dad has spoken of the “horrendous” moment his 14-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that left him needing major surgery to remove and rebuild his jaw.
Caroline Chisholm schoolboy Kit Eales was diagnosed in July 2024 after what first appeared to be a routine dental issue. Now 14, the teenager has undergone intensive chemotherapy, an 11-hour operation, and is still on maintenance treatment.
His dad Darren said: “It’s horrendous. Being told your kid’s got cancer – it’s the worst thing any parent could go through. And the worst part is, at the beginning, they don’t even know how bad it is or if it’s spread.”
He described the weeks after the diagnosis as the most agonising of their lives.
Darren said: “For two or three weeks we were just waiting. He was having biopsies, scans, tests – every day we woke up not knowing what we were dealing with. That void… it felt like a year.”
The cancer had begun as a small lump in Kit’s jaw. Dentists initially thought it was a dental abscess or a wisdom tooth. But after weeks of pain and procedures, the family were finally told it was a soft tissue cancer that had begun eating away at his jawbone.
“It just floored us,” Darren said. “As soon as they told us he had cancer, I just thought: oh God, the worst thing’s going to happen.”
Kit was put on immediate chemotherapy and later underwent life-changing surgery at Nottingham Hospital to remove his jaw and rebuild it using bone and muscle from his leg.
Darren said: “It was an 11-hour operation. They cut his gum, removed the jawbone and rebuilt it with his leg. Honestly, when they told us, I just thought: how do they even do that?”
The surgery also meant severing a facial nerve, meaning Kit can no longer smile on one side. But Darren and his wife Miranda are just relieved he came through it.
“If that’s all that comes from it after all he’s been through, we’ll take it,” said Darren.
Despite the ordeal, Kit is now back at school full-time and remains on low-dose chemo for six more months.
“He’s so strong,” Darren said. “We were breaking down every day in the beginning. But Kit… he’s just powered through it. He’s my hero.”
Kit’s also kept his spirits up despite everything he has faced.
Darren said: “He’s very outgoing. He loves his sports – snooker, karate, he used to play football. He can’t do as much right now because his leg’s still healing, and he has to be careful with his jaw. But within himself, he’s happy. He’s funny, he’s caring – he’s just a great lad.”
To raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Eales family – Darren, Miranda and Kit – will abseil down the Northampton Lift Tower on Saturday (June 7). Their 10-year-old daughter Lottie will be cheering them on from the sidelines as she’s too young to take part.
More than £2,500 has already been raised on their online fundraiser.
“We want to get a bit of awareness out there about children’s cancer,” Darren said. “I never really heard about it in children until we were in this position.”
“A lot of people moan about the NHS,” he added. “But when it comes to kids – they’re just second to none.”
As well as being a devoted dad, Darren runs his own car mechanic business, D.Eales On Wheels in Far Cotton, and has had to juggle work around Kit’s gruelling treatment schedule. He added: “It's not been easy, but the community and our customers have been so understanding. I’m really grateful.”