13-year-old Meath boy misdiagnosed with constipation has rare cancer

A 13-year-old Meath boy who was misdiagnosed with constipation is now suffering from a rare form of cancer.

Slav Vavro attended A&E with his family late last year complaining of stomach and back pain. He was misdiagnosed with constipation and left the hospital on the same day. Later, it was discovered that Slav had a rare form of stage four cancer called Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma that had spread into his spine and bone marrow. The teenager needs to travel abroad for treatment, as the chemo currently available in Ireland does not provide a cure. Slav's mother, Nadia, says that treatment available in the US is the best chance her son has of beating his condition. She says:

"There are different protocols used in EU and USA. There are different treatments used as well with different outcomes. And we have to try everything possible to save our lovely boy. "Slav is always smiling, spreading a good energy around and he is grateful for every day. He does not deserve this and there is no child on this earth who would deserve something like this."

Nadia set up a GoFundMe page to try and raise the desperately needed funds to get the Bettytown boy abroad for treatment. She says that the procedures available are incredibly expensive but that Slav's family are doing everything they can "to save their lovely boy's life." Nadia also says that most people don't understand the necessity for fundraising "... until it is touching us." She says:

"As a mother you do not want to and you cannot tell your child that he/she has a cancer. As a mother I would never be ready for all side effects and for everything what we went and what we are going through. "You are never ready for that... We do not understand what other parents of children with similar diagnoses are going through. We pass fundraisers on the street, shouting and banging with buckets of coins but we do not understand until it is touching us, or it is our own child."

The trials existing to treat Slav's condition are currently only available in the US - there is no cure for him in Ireland. Nadia has already raised over €35,000 of her €50,000 goal on GoFundMe. She is urging people to give whatever they can to help her son.