By MAMAMIA NEWS
On air this morning, Nova radio host Kate Langbroek opened up about her 10-year-old son’s three-year battle with leukemia.
Langbroek said her first-born son Lewis was diagnosed in 2009. At first doctors though he had a virus, but after they pushed for more tests when their son wasn’t getting better, Lewis was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia called T-cell ALL.
“It is mercifully very rare and it is mercifully quite curable,” Langbroek said.
In March this year, Lewis was cleared of the cancer.
“He’s really well and he’s really healthy and his hair’s grown back,” she told her co-host Dave Hughes.
Langbroek said her son was 18 kilos at one point during his battle “and he had a feeding tube and he was a bald little badger”.
“When I was tucking him in last night there were so many times that I didn’t dare to think that I’d be tucking in my ten year old son and I feel so blessed that I am and that we’re all here.
Langbroek, who has three other children, said she had chosen not to share the story with listeners until now because “it wasn’t (her) story to tell”.
“I have never shared this with listeners before for a number of reasons. One: it wasn’t my story to tell. The other is that sometimes we were up to our eyeballs in terror and we could only just keep our noses above and just try to suck in some air and to keep going.”
“When Lewis was first diagnosed they said to us at the hospital you have to have live a normal life,” she said.
“As you can imagine we were like ‘what are you talking about, who can live a normal life’?”
“(But) in the living of the normal life, you see why it is so important. Work is a salvation and secondly if you don’t live a normal life what are you saying to your child about what you think is going to happen to them and to you and to your family.
Langbroek thanked her co-host Dave Hughes for his support during the time.
Hughesy replied by saying: “Your strength through this radio show and just through life has been remarkable and how you’ve kept soldiering on and never lost your sense of humour is incredible, absolutely incredible.
“To front up pretty much every day and have that beautiful spirit that you’ve never lost – and which I’m sure has rubbed off on Lewis and that’s why he’s the happy kid he is – is amazing.
Langbroek said Lewis still has a port (which is button under your skin which is used for chemotherapy) that will be removed on the 27th of August.
“Lewis will always be, have a slight question mark over him,” Langbroek said.
Kate and her husband Peter are also the parents of Artie, Jan and Sunday.
We’d love it if you could share your messages of support to Kate and her family in the comments.
Top Comments
OMG that is remarkable that you have kept on keeping on all this time and have kept mum about this.Too many people in the spotlight use illness as a way to self promote, albeit twinged with hardship etc - its a way of just grabbing headlines and I truly respect the decision you made to swim against that tide. Wow - what a great role model you are to all of us not only your own children. Wishing you all the very best for now and beyond.xx
Good on you Kate. I, for one, can understand about keeping it private & treating work as a salvation. Sometimes the only way to cope is to spend 80% of the time pretending its not happening and 20% of the time facing the terrifying reality, processing it, making decisions then moving back to normal life. Because as it turns out, this was just a bump in Lewis' road, it does not define him entirely as a child. It's important for the other children as well to not let an illness be all consuming. Time passes & you can never get that time in their development back.