‘We will be connected to GOSH forever’: Meet David

David is a triplet; he has a brother and a sister. “They were a big surprise! They were IVF babies – we waited 12 years for them, then they all came at once,” Olivier says.

David and his siblings were born in Rwanda after Olivier and Louise got stuck visiting family during the pandemic.

Olivier and Louise brought their three babies home in December 2021. David was “a really cheerful boy”, described by his dad as “the heart of the family”.

But when David was four, he began vomiting and complaining of headaches.

His parents took him to the GP where he was eventually referred for a CT scan, which scans organs, tissues and muscles to look for tumours, injuries and diseases, including types of cancer.

He was then transferred to GOSH. After that, everything happened very quickly.

“It was so fast. On Sunday we had all been together at church, David was not complaining of anything, and less than a week later he was in intensive care. It was very shocking. This illness came from nowhere,” Olivier says.

At GOSH, doctors decided to perform surgery as the tumour was pressing on David’s brain. It was a scary time for the family, Olivier recalls.

“Even before they got him to surgery, they called us twice because his heart stopped at 2am and at 6am – twice in the same night. They believed that the pressure on his brain was causing high blood pressure and his heart to arrest.”

David was under the care of a team of GOSH doctors and nurses who Olivier said feel “like they are with you all along the way.”

David and his family were transferred to Koala Ward to wait for the results.

“We were thinking, ‘It may be a tumour but hopefully it will not be cancerous’ and when the results came that was really tough,” Olivier remembers.

David was diagnosed with ATRT, a rare and aggressive cancer.

“I will not lie, it was a tough, tough, tough time,” Olivier says.

While David remained in intensive care, his parents were given accommodation near the hospital, funded by GOSH Charity.

“Mostly, David’s mum or I were staying at the hospital, and we would swap each night,” Olivier says. “We were really grateful for the room, because it meant we could be near David. Travelling from our home was a long journey, and very costly.”

David and his family were also supported through a range of other GOSH Charity-funded services, including the Chaplaincy team, social workers and meal vouchers. All of which helped them through an unimaginably difficult time.

“We are lucky there was the community of GOSH,” Olivier says.

David was put on a six month treatment plan, including three cycles of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiotherapy.

The treatment has not been easy for him, he has been vomiting a lot, so he is on anti-sickness drugs, and there was a time when they could not control the fever.”

Olivier says the radiotherapy was particularly challenging for him as a parent.

“Every time that they are going to take him for treatment, he needs to be put to sleep. So as a parent you kiss him and you always worry, ‘Will he come back?’. And you worry about the side effects too.”

From face painting and toys, to therapy dogs and music, there are lots of things to entertain and engage patients at GOSH. They might be there for the children, but Olivier says it “helps the parents as well”.

David loved music therapy in particular.

Olivier remembers that when Davis was in quarantine “they came and brought a lot of instruments and he was happy playing with them. Most of the time he would play drums – he loves to make noise!”

The staff also sang with David. “Sometimes he was not able to speak much, but he was given a choice of songs to sing and he enjoyed that, and I believe it was helping him to move and to speak – it was very good therapy.”

The charity funded Play team also had a big impact on David’s experience at GOSH. In particular, Ben, who would bring Play-Doh to entertain David and give Olivier and Louise a bit of a break.

“Normally David is very attached to me and mum, but he got familiar with Ben, so Ben could stay with him and I could go and make a cup of tea and know that he would be happy.”

David finished radiotherapy in July 2025 and was able to return home with his family.

He’s now enjoying being a child and concentrating on his favourite thing – Spiderman.

Olivier says: “David loves Spiderman, he has everything Spiderman – he runs around wearing a Spiderman costume, has Spiderman glasses, a hat… Spiderman is everywhere!”

If everything goes well, David will have his Hickman line, used to give medicines and take blood samples, removed in September.

After this, he will be seen every three months for two years to determine whether the cancer has gone.

But perhaps the biggest milestone is the plan for David to start school with his siblings in September.

The trio are also looking forward to celebrating their fifth birthday, with Olivier planning a big community celebration – including the staff at GOSH who helped his family.

GOSH cares for children, just like David, who have rare and hard to treat forms of cancer.

Our new Children’s Cancer Centre will mean better facilities, kinder treatments and bigger breakthroughs. As well as all the Play-Doh, music, fun and silliness that makes childhood, childhood.

Join us to build the future of children’s cancer care at GOSH and help beat cancer for more children.