A mum who quit her job to care for her son after his leukaemia diagnosis has told how the disease "nearly broke" their family.

Anna Palmer thought her boy Mikey had just picked up a bug when he started to get ill on New Year's Eve 2016.

The Gateshead mum said her "whole world imploded" when Mikey was diagnosed with leukaemia two months later, aged 13.

Since then Mikey has had 623 doses of chemotherapy, 17 trips to theatre and 10 blood and platelet transfusions, and has another year to go for treatment. 


Anna, meanwhile, had to give up her job in Tesco to be there for her son following his shock diagnosis.

"It has nearly broken us," said the 34-year-old.

"Money gets tighter as you go backwards and forwards, having to pay for petrol and parking, and food while Mikey was on chemotherapy.

"Cancer tries its best to rip you apart from the inside out. It takes your most precious thing as a parent and tries to take it away."

Mikey Palmer in hospital

Now Anna is taking on the Great North Run after being inspired to raise money for more children and families facing cancer.

Mikey's illness started off on New Year’s Eve in 2016.

Anna said: "We just thought he was ill and had picked up some sort of bug and so we weren’t too concerned. You’re not thinking when your bairn is young that he has cancer.”

But as time went on, Mikey still wasn’t drinking and eating and so Anna and her partner Michael, took Mikey to hospital.


”We went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead in January, and they said he was dehydrated and took his bloods. It came back something was wrong with his bone marrow but we didn’t know what it was at time. 

“We were then sent across to Royal Victoria Infirmary a day later and they took some more bloods. The doctors were just thinking it was a viral infection – and you just believe them as there is no reason not to.

“Then, at the end of February, Mikey said he felt really tired and sick, and he wasn’t well again.”

Anna took Mikey back to hospital where doctors did a test for his bone marrow and did an ultrasound. It was that afternoon the family were told Mikey has leukaemia.

Mikey Palmer in hospital

“I just felt absolutely numb. My whole world imploded. The whole of the family was thrown on to a rollercoaster we couldn’t get off. We just went into survival mode.”

Over the past two years Mikey, now 15, has bravely battled the disease.

Anna said: "The chemotherapy really took it out of Mikey. We were thinking are we going to lose him?

"He was on morphine and so many drugs and you are just sitting there watching him not on this planet. 

“It’s horrendous as a parent – you feel broken inside because there is nothing you can do.

"You can’t get angry at anyone because it is nobody’s fault. You are just breaking on the inside and are just so angry, questioning why your son has to go through this.

"It nearly has broken us but we are getting there. Mikey is now on the maintenance stage which he will finish in August 2020.”

Anna will now be putting her best foot forward on Sunday as she takes on the 13.1 mile Great North Run to raise vital funds for cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

Anna signed up for the race with her sister Laura, her sister-in-law Suzie and best friend Emma to give something back to the charity who they say helped to guide them through the “nightmare” after Mikey was diagnosed.

To sponsor Anna’s challenge, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/teammikey2019