Bénédicte Travers and her son Maxence -
Travers family
In 2018, Maxence declared leukemia a few days after his fourth birthday.
Bénédicte Travers, his mother, looks back on her son's journey, now in remission, and on how his family lived this difficult experience.
At 6 years old, little Maxence has already led a hard fight against leukemia, which is now on the way to being won.
On the occasion of International Childhood Cancer Day, this Monday, her mother Bénédicte agreed to tell
20 Minutes
this long journey, punctuated by shock, waiting and questions, then remission and need to act.
This family from Ligné (Loire-Atlantique) testifies in the book
Regards
which has just been published by Les Plumes d'Ocris.
"The impression of breaking up you"
It started in September 2018, with angina and knee pain.
We said to ourselves "it's growth", but from there to no longer being able to get into your car seat!
The antibiotics didn't work, the radio didn't show anything, so after two visits the doctor sent us to Nantes University Hospital… We stayed there for a month.
It was October 3, 2018, two days after Maxence's 4th birthday.
We were seated on the 5th floor without really telling us anything.
But when you see “pediatric oncology”, you understand…
The doctor did not come until the next day to tell us, and there it is, you have the impression of breaking up, but at the same time, the world around you continues to turn.
Then everything happened: blood tests, chemo ... Unfortunately, the leukemia was resistant to treatment so we had to change the protocol.
The intensive treatment lasted a year, but it worked.
The hardest thing to live with is this waiting, the unanswered questions… The doctors are very factual, they tell us not to project ourselves too much.
"The children are in the present"
As a teacher, I was able to stop working right away and my husband received leave donations from colleagues.
We took turns, it was hard, we also had to be there for my three older daughters and Maxence's twin brother.
The siblings didn't say anything at the time, they didn't make waves, but they were expensive, it was not just the parents and the sick child.
Maxence, he knew that he had a "big illness".
At first, he reacted very badly, he felt locked in this room.
It was better the day I brought him a calendar with stickers to count the days before I got home.
He also showed a lot of humor: one day he drew himself with three little hairs, he told me "no more because I really don't have much"!
Children give us great lessons in life because at that age, they are in the present.
Fortunately, we stick together with the other families in the service, a place where there is not only tears but also a lot of joy and solidarity.
They are the only ones who can understand what we are going through.
Others do their best but can't always find the words.
"A great relief"
After a year, maintenance treatment arrived: fatigue disappears, appetite returns!
He had to be careful because his immunity was still low, but the results were good.
And then a few months later, remission.
A great relief.
Today, we do a blood test every month and see the doctor every quarter.
Our son has resumed the course of his life, he is in first grade, he loves the bike, the swimming pool, the Lego… For him, it's a bit like a parenthesis, which we, the parents, do not have yet completely closed.
We hope that one day it will be done.
It was not until 2024 before it was considered cured.
Even if we talk about something else, we think about it all the time, like a sword of Damocles, but we move forward.
When you book a vacation, you have to take out cancellation insurance because you don't know where you will be in three months.
This ordeal teaches us to live from day to day.
On a daily basis, we reviewed our priorities, we take the time to play, to listen to each other, we clear up the trifles.
At least this experience will have taught us to put things in their place, to stop having our head in the handlebars.
"The taboo persists"
We always have questions, especially the first question we ask ourselves when the diagnosis is made.
Why Maxence?
We still do not know why he fell ill except that it is environmental, that is to say that the cause is probably in what we eat, what we breathe, maybe a cocktail of all that ?
Suddenly, we changed our habits: we consume organic, we changed all our household products, we cut the Wifi.
I try to educate people around me, especially expectant mothers, but I regret that there is so little will on a larger scale.
In our sector alone, there have been six cases in one year!
In Ligné, there are fields everywhere, pesticides near our houses, that could be a trail but there is no precautionary principle.
The government has just released a cancer plan and not a word on pediatric cancer, I find that absurd.
We feel non-existent, and the taboo persists.
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