I questioned my family and said: ‘Is this going to make me die?’ Telford teen opens up about tough cancer treatment
A Telford schoolboy has described how life-saving cancer treatment led to permanent hair loss and a change in skin colour in a heart-wrenching film watched by thousands on national television.
Football mad Yuvraj Singh was just 10 when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia – a type of blood cancer - in November 2020. When chemotherapy failed to work, his only hope was a stem cell transplant. But in a cruel twist of fate, the treatment that saved his life also left his body under attack.
Yuvraj and his mum Surjeet have shared their story in a raw short film made for Stand Up To Cancer – a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 which aired on Friday night. Stand Up to Cancer funds projects and trials that take breakthroughs from the lab and accelerate them into new tests and treatments to help more people beat the disease.
In the film Yuvraj, now 15, explains how debilitating treatment side effects have left him feeling like ‘the odd one out’.
“My hands just started bleeding out of nowhere and layers of skin slowly kept peeling off,” said Yuvraj. “Eventually it went all over my body and then I found out that I was never going to have hair again.”
Recalling his initial cancer diagnosis, mum Surjeet said symptoms first appeared around Diwali 2020 when Yuvraj began vomiting blood. “We just had to get him to A&E as quick as possible,” she said. “They did all sorts of tests and they said he’s got blood cancer. Our world just fell apart.”
Fighting back the tears on camera, Yuvraj added: “I felt really scared. I questioned my family and said, ‘is this going to make me die?’"
Surjeet recalls the moment the family were told that chemotherapy wasn’t working. “We were told we’d need to look at a stem cell transplant but there were many many risks involved,” she said. “It could affect his lungs, his eyes. It was stressful, weighing up the side effects compared to saving your child’s life but you have no choice – you’ve just got to do it.”
To reduce the risk of infection Yuvraj had to spend two months - including his 11th birthday - in an isolated hospital room with hardly any visitors.
Surjeet said: “Every day he used to say, ‘can I go home?’ He just wanted see his friends and be a normal child. Then, when he finally made it home, everything they told us that could go wrong did go wrong.”
Yuvraj began experiencing symptoms of graft versus host disease, a complication where transplanted donor cells attack the recipients body.
Surjeet said: “Watching your child in pain is just heartbreaking. He changed from brown to white. It did feel like he was losing his identity. It’s really hard to accept he’s never going to look the same again. It feels like Yuvraj’s childhood was snatched away from him.”
With around 34,600 people diagnosed with cancer every year in the West Midlands, the need to make faster advances is clear.* By 2040, it’s projected one person in the UK will be diagnosed with the disease every two minutes. In the 1970s, it was every four minutes.
Yuvraj said he was especially proud to make the film to help raise awareness of childhood cancers. “It’s been five years since I was diagnosed and ever since then I’ve been trying to get a message across to people all around the world that childhood cancer needs more awareness,” he said. “It’s just little steps but eventually I’ll get there. Loads of people will come across the message and understand it.”
Yuvraj also has a poignant message to others going through cancer. “Try your best and never give up because you never know, the light at the end of the tunnel may shine for you.”
Surjeet added: “I feel so proud of him to be confident enough to be on camera after everything he’s been through. He still has his down days and it’s very difficult but he accepts the way he looks. We wanted to show other families that they’re not alone.”
Since 2012, Stand Up To Cancer has raised more than £113 million, funding 73 clinical trials and research projects involving more than 13,000 cancer patients. That equates to nearly a million hours’ worth of pioneering research, bringing new hope.
Yuvraj’s film was broadcast during Friday’s live show which also saw King Charles issue a message of hope to the nation following his own cancer diagnosis. The King also used his message to encourage eligible adults not to ignore cancer screening invitations.
It’s estimated at least 9 million people in the UK are not up to date with their cancer screening. That’s why, this year, Stand Up To Cancer has also launched a Cancer Screening Checker. The new simple-to-use online tool will help the public find out which cancer screening programmes they’re eligible for.
Cancer Research UK spokesperson for Shropshire, Paula Young, said: “Thanks to the generosity of the public, our scientists are helping to transform the landscape of cancer therapy. From using AI to optimise radiotherapy treatment for rectal cancer to creating lollipops that could detect mouth cancer, we’re at the cutting edge of research.
“But stories like Yuvraj’s highlight why we must go further and faster and we’re so incredibly grateful to the Singh family for their support.
“Almost one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime. All of us can help beat it. That’s why we’re asking everyone to Stand Up To Cancer with us by donating or fundraising. If thousands of us make a stand, we’ll speed up the progress of vital research – meaning more people live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.”
Yuvraj’s story is available to stream now on Channel 4.
People can donate or fundraise for Stand Up To Cancer at su2c.org.uk
