Bushey teenager with cancer fights for overseas treatment

Will Rutt, 19, from Bushey, had his whole world turned upside down after he discovered he had cancer at just the age of 16 just a few months after his birthday.

At the time, Mr Rutt was a student at Aldenham School and was beginning his GCSE’s, but following his birthday in January he began to feel fatigued and found a lump in his right armpit – which he says started “the chain of events” to his diagnosis in April and six months of severe radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Speaking back on the revelation of his diagnosis, he said: “It’s quite strange because I knew what was going on, but there’s a big difference between knowing and experiencing what’s going on.

“The impact of being diagnosed didn’t hit me until I was a few sessions in, until I lost my hair or until I could noticeably see I was skinnier. I think the initial diagnosis probably hit my parents more than it hit me.”

While going through his cancer treatment, he balanced his revision for his GCSE’s, and he had to later repeat the process for his A-Levels.

After the trying six months, Mr Rutt was given the all clear and was in remission, allowing him to go back to some normality as a teenager.

Mr Rutt, who describes himself as sportive, managed to get himself into rock climbing and began to catch up on all the socialising and partying which he felt he missed out on due to his cancer.

He said: “In my head I had just beaten cancer, so part of me felt invincible. So it was a year of partying which inflamed my social life. It really made it bloom and it was really good fun, but then in the second diagnosis I did lose contact with a lot of my friends.”

For nearly two years things looked great for Mr Rutt – but six months before his next diagnosis he found a lump in his hand which he considered to be a bruise from rock climbing and he “brushed off”.

Even the University College Hospital (UCLH) in London dismissed the lump, but six months after he was diagnosed with cancer once again.

Since it was a late diagnosis, the cancer had already spread to his spine which made his second treatment more severe.

He said: “In the last year or two I was strong spirited, but in the first year or two of treatment I went very downhill in terms of mental health.

“My parents, as you can imagine, were very confused and conflicted. As was I. I thought the whole world was against me and I was trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Because nobody was giving me an answer, at the time I thought God had it out for me.

“I had a few months of treatment the second time, which was the hardest treatment mentally. That was the time I needed the most therapy and I doubted myself the most.”

The period meant Mr Rutt had many depressive and anxiety-fuelled moments, and therapy from Aldenham School helped him overcome much of it.

He said: “You think the whole world is against you – it might be if you’re looking at it in a certain way. You have to change your outlook and then you can change your life.”

In between his second recovery and before his third diagnosis, he met his now-fiancé Claire, who helped him boost his confidence and mental state. But just a short while after his recovery, Claire discovered a lump on his back.

He was re-diagnosed for the third time on November 25, 2019. Treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London helped for a while, but it eventually got to a point where Mr Rutt was told there wasn’t much treatment left.

“They didn’t say ‘there’s nothing we can do for you now’, but in a way they did,” he explained.

His doctor recommended experimental immunotherapy treatment overseas, and after a lot of research the family concluded that they would need at least a new total of £90,000 for the treatment in Mexico.

While there may be additional costs after, the family have tried to fundraise as much as they could for the treatment.

Anyone wishing to donate to the fundraiser and to support Mr Rutt on his journey, are asked to visit here: https://gf.me/u/yj4ifi