Hamilton boy who was given chemo against his wishes is losing faith, father says

The father, who cannot be named because the boy was put in the care of the Children's Aid Society, said his son is despondent, run down and just wants to go home.

The boy was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was seven. After enduring his first tough experiences with chemotherapy his cancer went into remission, but returned earlier this year.

When told last week that he'd need to undergo more chemo he refused and his father decided they would try some alternative therapies.

But medical officials said the boy would have only six months to live without chemotherapy and insisted that he have another round of treatment. But even chemo gave no guarantees of making the boy cancer free - the odds of complete remission were set at 50-50.

The father lost custody to CAS after trying to fight for his son's wishes.

But the boy has now given up fighting, his father said, and likened him to a tortured prisoner who is willing to say anything to be released.

"All he ever says is, 'I just want to go home.' Now he's agreeing to everything and anything as long as you let him go to be free," his father said in an interview.

The boy feels like a prisoner in his hospital room - surrounded by security guards and CAS and youth protection workers, the father said.

"He's a little prisoner, he can't leave his room or anything, he can't visit with any other sick children, he can't go anywhere because he's under house arrest," he said.

"He's a criminal for having cancer."

The boy has undergone more chemo and isn't expected to leave hospital until Thursday, at the very earliest.

His family and CAS will go to a Hamilton court Tuesday afternoon where a judge will decide who will get custody upon the boy's release.

The boy's family is worried that he's given up hope and will only get more sick if he gives up fighting.

"We told him, 'Don't worry buddy, please try to be healthy, relax, relax, relax, relax,' and he even said to me, 'I don't care. They can even kill me with their chemo and stuff I don't care, as long as I can come home and be home with you and mommy," he recalled.

"You know what that feels like to hear your son say that?"

The father said that even if his son is allowed to return home it won't be a completely happy reunion, since he'll still be weak from his chemotherapy and life won't be back to normal.

"But I can start sitting with him and playing his hand drum with him and singing his songs with him that he's written and helping him write his stories again, because he loves to write stories," the father said.

The boy hopes to finish writing a story called Walking in Faith before he gets too sick so he can share his story with other sick kids.

"It's all about his cancer journey that he's had because he wants other families and other children to know what he's been going through and how his faith has taken him this far," he said.

"At least he'll know that his voice got out and maybe it'll help some other family have courage and faith to fight and go on and go on."