Boy, 9, diagnosed with ping-pong ball sized tumor after symptoms dismissed as school tiredness

A child’s tumor symptoms were thought to be exhaustion, but following a trip to the opticians, found it was much worse than originally thought.

Nine-year-old Haisam Raja had been complaining of headaches for months before he was given an appointment that ultimately led to his diagnosis of cancer.

At first, his mom, Misba Qayyum thought he was suffering from dehydration, lack of sleep, or tiredness because of his busy days with school.

However, after visiting their General Practice doctor, the family claimed they were told it was nothing more than a viral infection.

But instead of leaving the problem there, mom took Raja to see an optician in case his eyesight was bringing on his headaches.

Haisam Raja was six when he finally got his diagnosis of cancer (SWNS)

There, she said the optometrist noticed significant swelling around his optic nerves and made an urgent referral to the eye clinic at Nottingham's Queen’s Medical Centre in the UK.

Sadly, where a CT and MRI scan revealed a germinoma tumor the size of a ping-pong ball, which had been preventing the fluid in the schoolboy’s brain from draining, leaving him with emergency surgery advices to go ahead in April 2023.

Misba, 38, of Nottingham, said: “At the beginning of 2023, Haisam started experiencing occasional headaches, but I thought they could be caused by dehydration, lack of sleep or tiredness from his busy routine with school and mosque. “

Said everything changed when ‘he came home early from a sleepover at my mums because of a headache and, a few days later, started experiencing nausea and vomiting too’ and had an episode of crying because of the pain.

The next day she said she took him to the GP, who she claims advised mild painkillers, but months after his sixth birthday, Misba says he ended up having surgery ‘to relieve the pressure and insert an external ventricular drain.’

In total, he underwent two operations as well as chemotherapy and proton beam therapy, which is a treatment used to blast cancer cells with radiation, per the Mayo Clinic.

Misba said the news came as a devastating shock to the parents, revealing: "My husband, Qaisar, just stood there unable to move. It was the first time in eight years of marriage that I had seen him cry.

“I called my mum and, as soon as I heard her voice, something broke in me.”

It all started with tiredness and headaches (SWNS)

Although she claims doctors couldn’t biopsy the tumor due to its positioning, he was later put through 10 hours of major brain surgery and the tumor was removed in its entirety before he began four sessions of chemotherapy followed by three weeks of proton beam therapy at University College Hospital in London.

Three years later, the little boy is being seen regularly to monitor his condition, with his mom warning parents: “If another parent is reading this and is concerned about their child, I would say to trust your instincts and pay attention to changes which don’t feel normal.

"If something doesn’t feel right, speak to your GP and keep asking questions if you feel you aren’t being heard.”

Raja will take part in a charity marathon for Brain Tumour Research on September 27, where he is hoping to raise money for the organization.

Dr Karen Noble, director of research and policy at Brain Tumour Research, said: “We urgently need greater investment in research into childhood brain tumors.

“We are incredibly grateful to Haisam and his friends for taking on the Robin Hood Mini Marathon. Their determination to turn what Haisam has been through into something positive is helping us push for the progress that children and their families so desperately need.”