04/10/2024
hello everyone if I can just steal a couple minutes of your time for you to read our story we’d really appreciate it.
The man in the photo above is called Benjamin Mason. And this is my baby girl that he decided to take on when I fell pregnant.
Benjamin took me to every appointment, every scan, every time I was scared he picked me up and I wasn’t even pregnant with his child. When my little girl was 3 months old we took the leap from best friends to a relationship and this was scary because I could’ve lost my absolute rock and bestfriend.
luckily we’re now engaged, live together and go on amazing holidays together with my now toddler.
However, I almost lost my rock a lot sooner
Ben unfortunately got diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgekins Lymphoma at the age of 16 on his little sister’s birthday. He spent his Christmas in hospital and was pumped with all sorts of drugs from steroids, to ketamine and endless rounds of intense chemotherapy. Over a short period of time the tumors spread all over his teenage body like wildfire, which required surgery to remove. His mum took him to the drs on multiple occasions and got turned away with ‘teenage hormones’, one day he got blue lighted to the hospital to then be told he had cancer just a few moments later.
Chemotherapy took a massive toll on Ben’s life physically, mentally and academically. His teeth have decimated into nothing and now suffers with extreme abscesses and infections. He lost his hair rapidly, to the point where he went into his local barbers where he’d normally get the usual ‘short back and sides’ and walked out with a 0 all over. As I’m sure you can imagine as a 16yr old boy the last thing you want to do when going back into school is go in with no hair. The steroids made his face inflamed. And he lost almost half of his body weight just within months. Ben found out early on he will not be able to conceive due to the chemotherapy. He couldn’t take any of his exams and lost out on his most important years of education and as a result got denied university putting his dreams on hold yet again.
now fast forward to 2024, we are happily engaged, have a home together and a dog. Although this may seem his happily ever after, 5 years into remission he is still very much struggling with the repercussions of his treatment.
5 years on and the first thing he said to me after our engagement was ‘my teeth are going to ruin the wedding photos’. And he said the same when we found out we had became pregnant, about the photos at birth, however we unfortunately we lost our baby not long before I got diagnosed with colon cancer. We have gone to his consultant and many NHS dentists to see if we can get any funding towards his biggest insecurity, to which we was turned away and told no. He wakes up multiple times in the night and the first thing he does every time is feel for a lump in his neck, he overthinks every illness with himself and me. He is traumatised by this disease that consumed his body.
So, our goal before our 2027 wedding is to pool £10,235 for his teeth to be fixed for our wedding, for our baby shower when it is time, and for any photographs to capture our memories we make in the eternity we will be together. I’d love for him to radiate with confidence and smile with no shame and to give this to him with your help would mean the world to our family.
please help if you can even just by sharing, thank you. Ben is not a victim of cancer, he is a survivor.
thank you for reading
his fiancée, El
Hello, I realise this is a LONG shot because to anyone else this is silly and isn’t importa… Elle Whittaker needs your support for Help ben get his teeth back