Ryan Murphy has announced his five-year-old son Ford is “cancer-free.”
The Glee creator revealed the news during Variety’s Power of Women event earlier this week, while presenting an award to Dana Walden, who was being honoured for her work at the UCLA Jonson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“Three years ago my beautiful son Ford went for a standard typical 18 month exam,” he began, according to PEOPLE. Thankfully, Ford caught “at the exact right moment” during the check up.
“He sat up, she was able to press her fingers in a bit deeper, Her eyes widened. Something was not right. From that moment came a day of terror and scans,” Murphy recalled, before adding that the doctors found the toddler has neuroblastoma.
“My baby had a tumor the size of a tennis ball at 18 months growing behind his abdominal wall. And the doctor said this was bad,” the American Horror Story creator said.
The 53-year-old reached out to Walden, the godmother to both of his children, after finding out about Ford’s diagnosis. He recalled how the little boy went through a long surgery and “years of intense exams, which required hours and hours of anaesthesia.”
View this post on Instagram
“I cannot express to you in this room how difficult this was on him, how difficult this was for our family,” he said.
And while he said he hasn’t been able to “emotionally recover” from it all, his son has.
“I am so proud to proclaim that he is cancer free,” Murphy said.
He also revealed his family had made a $10 million donation to the Children’s Hospital where Ford had been treated by Walden.
He said:
“There is now a wing dedicated under Ford’s name that specializes in helping children without our resources.Children without a champion like we had in Dana Walden.”
Murphy first shared Ford’s diagnosis in October last year, just before his son celebrated his fourth birthday.
