My son took one bite of his first birthday cake and I knew something was terribly wrong. Then we got news of his devastating diagnosis

Baby Harris was happily enjoying his very first birthday cake when, out of nowhere, he suddenly started vomiting.

At first, parents Tyler and Alix Richardson assumed their son, whom they affectionately nicknamed Hazzy, was having a bad reaction to the sugar.

But over the next few weeks, little Hazzy’s condition deteriorated.

‘He was a normal, happy and bubbly kid,’ dad Tyler told FEMAIL. 

‘But all of a sudden he became very irritable and needy, this just became worse and worse over time.’

After multiple doctor visits and being told Hazzy’s symptoms were caused from a ‘daycare virus’, the Tasmanian couple knew something wasn’t right.

‘He was pale and really didn’t want to be put down and needed to be on you. These symptoms seem like a normal sick kid, but they just became so extreme that the GPs couldn’t explain it any longer,’ Tyler explained. 

Following a biopsy, the family was given the worst news imaginable. At just one years old, Hazzy was diagnosed in August 2023 with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer that’s commonly found in the adrenal glands.

‘We just felt absolute heartbreak, fear and anxiety at a level impossible to describe,’ Tyler said, recalling the moment he learned about his son’s cancer diagnosis. 

‘Everything hits at once, and you feel your world just stop. He was a one-year-old kid who, up until recently, was doing great.

‘I feel sick just thinking back to it. I don’t want anyone to have to go through that.’

Before their world was unexpectedly turned upside down, the young family-of-three was living a seemingly normal life.

Tyler was teaching at a local high school and was the lead singer and bassist for the Tasmanian band Luca Brasi, while his wife Alix worked as a cafe manager.

At daycare, Hazzy loved playing with his friends and he enjoyed going to the beach.

‘He was nicknamed ‘Happy Hazzy’ as he permanently had a big cheesy grin on his face,’ the dad explained. 

‘There was nothing to make you believe, at first, that he was unwell.’

The couple hosted their little boy’s first birthday at home, with friends and family gathering to mark the milestone.

‘Hazzy was having a great day,’ Tyler recalled. 

‘All of a sudden things turned and he started vomiting, which we initially put down to his first big chocolate birthday cake experience… We thought it was just a reaction to his first taste of sugar.’

‘But he kind of deteriorated from that point onwards.’

The parents noticed their son’s condition got progressively worse. 

‘The symptoms just never went away and just got more and more extreme,’ he said.

‘A couple of months of doctor visits and no improvement led us to keep pushing for more tests as we knew something wasn’t right with him. A paediatrician sent him straight to the hospital for a biopsy after a quick look, he just knew he wasn’t right.’

After Hazzy was diagnosed, the family had no choice but to move to Melbourne, as his rare type of cancer couldn’t be treated in Hobart.

Over the past 18 months, Hazzy has undergone multiple rounds of high-dose chemotherapy, two surgeries, two stem cell transplants and radiotherapy.

Though watching his son go through intense treatment has been gut-wrenching.

‘This is probably the part I’ll never recover from… the treatment for his disease is especially brutal,’ Tyler explained. 

‘It is such an aggressive cancer and the treatment is designed to literally reduce your body to zero in the hope the stem cell transplants can stop it returning.

‘Aside from the treatment itself, it’s a very isolating experience, moving states overnight, changing your existence completely and being cut off is very challenging.’

Hazzy, who’s now two-and-a-half years old, is currently undergoing his fifth round of immunotherapy.

‘He’s doing fantastic, it’s crazy how adaptable he is. He has a little backpack with his medication and he loves it, he won’t go anywhere without it,’ Tyler said. 

‘Hazzy is flying, he is almost through his treatment protocol and we are preparing to finally move back to Tassie before Christmas with a healthy and disease free child.

‘We will continue with Hazzy’s preventative treatment as we go.’

Hazzy will soon begin receiving a new drug called DFMO, which helps reduce the risk of relapse and has recently become accessible thanks to the campaigning Neuroblastoma Australia and families impacted by neuroblastoma.

Tyler hopes his son Hazzy’s story will shine a light on childhood cancer, with the goal of spreading awareness and encouraging further research.

‘This hell is something no one should have to go through, and it is through the advancement of treatment that we can hopefully continue to improve conditions for children,’ he said. 

For parents with children going through cancer, Tyler said: ‘There is a light, and someday it will brighten. You are not alone.’