‘You had to get used to not bursting into tears’: Gyles Brandreth on supporting his family through his grandson’s cancer battle

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth has shared poignant insight into his grandson's cancer battle.

Kitt, the son of Gyles' daughter Saethryd, was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer, in April 2017 at just 15 months old.

After Saethryd and her husband Mark found a small lump near his stomach, doctors were initially unconcerned. However, after they pushed for further testing, his diagnosis was confirmed and Kitt was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

Appearing on Saga's Experience Is Everything podcast, hosted by Lorraine Kelly, Gyles opens up about the difficulty of knowing how to support his family during Kitt's treatment, and the profound effect the diagnosis had on their lives.

The broadcaster explains that Kit had a "babyhood cancer that he was born with," which initially "at the doctors, the first GP dismissed it."

After Saethryd "persists in anxiety" and took her son to A&E "where they do take him more seriously," the family were given the devastating news.

Although Gyles says it was "the first time I was confronted by a challenge," he says it was not really his challenge, "But the challenge was my daughter's challenge and our son-in-law's challenge," he says.

"It wasn't our story, it was their story," he adds, continuing, "We were impacted by it, but all we could do was help."

He explains that children staying at Great Ormond Street, where Kitt ended up staying for a year, "like a parent to stay the night with the child."

"We're talking about a year that he was there, which is pretty stressful," he says, but they as grandparents stepped in to help their daughter with this, and Gyles' wife Michèle "often was doing the nights, which I didn't do."

Speaking about his daughter and her husband, Gyles shares, "They coped with it so admirably, you wouldn't believe it."

Recalling how he and Michèle dealt with the situation, he says it was, "By simply I think staying positive, staying there when required, but out of the way when not required."

He adds, "And I think, I hope, making it about them and not about us." Fortunately, Kitt recovered, and Gyles reports, "He has had his five-year all clear."

Reflecting on Kitt's time in hospital, the broadcaster recalls, "You had to get used to going into the hospital - he was in two hospitals - and not bursting into tears."

He adds, "Seeing all these little children with no hair, and all of them so positive." He also says that when it came to Kitt's care, "The heavy lifting was done entirely by the parents," and that as grandparents, their job was to assist.

"The grandparents helped, but they [Saethryd and Mark] were the ones, and the little boy who was too young to know what was going on, who endured it all," he explains.

Kitt was also affected by his time in the hospital, with Gyles sharing that "there was the period afterwards where anyone who appeared looking like a nurse or a doctor, he burst into tears, you know, screaming and all."

He continues, "So, it's not been easy, But we're moving on." He concludes, "His story has ended happily, which it doesn't for everybody."