Robbie’s amazing cancer battle Facebook posts

An inspirational teenager has touched the hearts of hundreds of people after writing an emotional account of his life-or-death cancer battle.

Robbie Bullock posted the moving story on his Facebook page while his mum was at keep-fit class.

It was only when mum Lynne came home she realised her 14-year-old son had decided to let the world know about his fight with the disease which began when he was just eight.

Already scores of people have commented on Robbie’s touching post, with many admitting they’d been reduced to tears by his heart-wrenching tale.

Robbie, from Bishopbriggs near Glasgow, eloquently recalls being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and how he and his family reacted and dealt with the diagnosis.

“My mum and dad couldn’t believe what they’d just heard,” Robbie wrote. “My mum started screaming and grabbed my dad and kept saying to me, ‘I’m sorry Robbie, I’m sorry Robbie’.

“I was just sitting there quite bewildered but I started to worry because of my mum’s reaction.”

Robbie reveals how he had eight teeth pulled in his first week in hospital to deter the spread of infection, before discovering the cancer had spread to his spleen, neck, chest and stomach.

He also observes how his mum, who had just given birth to his brother, was coping and tells of the day he returned to school only to be bullied because he was bald.

It’s a remarkable piece of writing from someone so young, yet Robbie who has been given the all-clear has already been through more in his life than most adults.

Lynne said: “He told me he wanted to write about his cancer and I think it was good for him to do so.

“But it was only when I came home last week I realised he’d put it online.

“I think he knows someone at school whose granddad is getting chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Robbie said he’d been through that, which his pal didn’t know, so he said he would upload his story to Facebook for his friend to read.”

Lynne had been encouraged to keep a diary by Yorkhill Hospital during Robbie’s illness, and she let him see it for the first time before he wrote about his courageous fight.

“It was an eye-opener for him,” she continued. “When he looks back now, he realises how lucky he was.

“I knew what really affected him, like how much he missed not being able to play football and how devastated he was when kids laughed at him because he was bald and had a fat stomach because of the steroids.

“He was seeing kids dying around him in hospital and that really frightened him.

“It was a period of my life when I remember everything and nothing at the same time, if that makes sense. The only thing I recall from that period is being beside Robbie.

“There were some scary moments, like when he developed a 43-degree temperature or when he wasn’t able to see me as I sat beside him.”

Since his recovery Robbie has helped to raise thousands of pounds for charity and is back playing football for his local team, Rossvale.

But the terrifying experience also made Lynne who has two other children, Christy, 7, and five-year-old Darrell take stock.

She had previously been in the publishing industry but now works for the NHS.

“After what we’d been through I couldn’t go back to just doing that.”

She added: “I’m very proud of Robbie. He is an inspiration to a lot of us.”

Robbie’s Facebook posts

Back to school: On March 18 I went back to school. It was my first time back since I was diagnosed with cancer and things were quite difficult worst of all I wasn’t allowed to play football because I had my portacath in.

Some kids even made fun of me because I was bald . . . at that point my heart just sank and I was trying to hold back the tears, but it was too painful.

Radiotherapy: As the months went by it was time for me to start radiotherapy. I was really scared.

I always looked at my mum’s face to see how she was reacting but she just smiled at me.

Radiotherapy was really bad and made me feel very sick. I remember thinking how I wasn’t getting any better and for once I could see the worry in my mum.

The all clear: On November 17 I come home from school and as I walked in my mum ran to me and gave me a giant hug. She was crying happy tears. My cancer was now in remission. That was the happiest day of my life.

I realise how lucky I am to be here and I will never take anything for granted again. I have my health and my family and I couldn’t be happier.