Life took an unpleasant and worrying direction in December 2015 for the Bruce family in Blantyre.
Their son, Mason Bruce, (11) a pupil of High Blantyre Primary School had been suffering from headaches for over a year and on 10th December 2015 was rushed to Glasgow Sick Kids Hospital where a brain tumour was discovered.
After numerous scans, Mason was operated on and his tumour was completely removed. Doctors determined his tumour was thankfully benign. As you can imagine, the whole ordeal was not only very worrying for Mason, but for all his family. After spending 7 long weeks in hospital, Mason is now back home in Blantyre and on the road to recovery. With his current strength and determination, his recovery period is likely to take about 18 months.
Mason would like to thank his family and friends for all their support. He says a massive thank you to Mrs Meechan and indeed, all the staff at High Blantyre Primary School who have been so supportive. A special thanks to Ms McKinlay whose help and care has gone beyond being a teacher. Mason also wants to thank Kerrie Scott from the U1 team who has given him a lot of help and support. As you can see from these photos, Mason is looking forward to becoming involved in sports again, and has recently attempted getting back on his bicycle. He’s looking forward to playing football again in the coming months and doing all the things he used to do before.
Blantyre Telegraph wanted to help Mason in some small way with his recovery and on the evening of Monday 18th April 2016; we donated £100 cash for Mason to buy something nice. Not wanting to leave his brothers and sister out, each of them were also given £20 vouchers to spend at Vue Cinemas.
The Bruce family were keen that we came along to meet Mason in person, something we were honoured to do last night. He’s a remarkable boy, brave beyond words and his recent ordeal has affected his health in other ways too. We spoke about some celebrities he met in hospital, but our conversation was dominated by his positivity, recovery and looking now to the future. We learned of his longing to returning to school and sports.
Before we left, there was a surprise in store for the whole family, when we donated a self-catering holiday worth £359 to assist with Mason’s recovery. This is something that was warmly received and appreciated by the Bruce family and we understand they have now made a confirmed holiday booking using that voucher.
Reminding them that the donations were possible only due to the kind people who bought an offline copy of the Blantyre Telegraph newspaper in recent weeks, Mason’s mother and father, Julie and Fraser Bruce commented, “thanks! We’re very humbled at the kindness of Blantyre Telegraph (and its readers) and so are our kids. x”
We’re sure you’ll join us in wishing Mason a speedy recovery back to full health.
Photos and permissions courtesy of the Bruce family.
