Boy’s super pale skin was sign of cancer

By Adam Dutton

A schoolboy whose pale skin was put down to him just being Scottish was actually suffering from cancer.

Kit Thomson, 9, was diagnosed with a 17cm cancerous tumor after his symptoms were initially dismissed as being an infection.

Parents Johnny Agnew and Alice Warren first noticed he looked paler than usual around December 2024 but put his pasty complexion down to their Scottish heritage.

Kit also had a puffy stomach which the couple assumed was bloating, before a doctor reassured them it was just a urine tract infection.

But when the youngster discovered he had blood in his urine and the lump on his stomach grew bigger, his parents changed GP and pushed for a second opinion.

An ultrasound and an MRI in February 2025 revealed the boy was actually suffering from a kidney cancer called Wilms tumour.

Kit has since undergone two rounds of gruelling chemotherapy as well as surgery.

Dad Johnny, 40, of Spittalfield, Perthshire, said: "He had been looking a bit pale but at the time he's a little guy and quite thin.

"It was winter, he's a Scottish boy in winter, so they are pale and you don't think anything of it. It'd be hard to tell the difference.

"It wasn't enough of a symptom to go to the doctor. Cancer is fairly asymptomatic and he was behaving normally, he was chatty.

"The next signs we noticed were blood in his urine. That's an alarming thing for a parent, but you don't immediately think it's cancer.

"We went to the GP, who said it was an infection, but then we noticed he was losing weight.

"Then, soon after, we noticed he had a puffy tummy and shockingly quickly after that you could actually see the tumor sticking out his tummy.

"Within a month, it was sticking out of his tummy. It came from nothing.

"At first we presumed he was full of gas or bloated.

"We'd seen a doctor in January and felt his tummy and said there was nothing wrong. He said it was likely a urine tract infection and gave us some antibiotics. So we changed doctors.

"Then the next thing we knew it was bulging out of his stomach.

"The new doctor felt around and thought it was maybe an inflamed spleen.

" As soon as the ultrasound was done, it was clear there was something significant there.

"It was taking up half of his abdomen, 17cm in one dimension. It was a giant tumor."

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Wilms tumor, also known as nephroblastoma, is the most common type of kidney cancer in children, according to The Children & Young People's Cancer Association.

Common symptoms include a painless abdominal mass or swelling and it usually effects children aged up to 5 years old.

Dad-of-two Johnny added: "Emotionally, it was hard to take. There was a lot of crying and a lot of worrying.

"For me it was a hard hit to have that official diagnosis. It was completely earth shattering. A few days later we were down in Edinburgh having treatment.

"He lost quite a lot of weight between diagnosis and surgery. We did get on top of it but it was hard to take."

Kit needed immediate chemotherapy, which was followed by surgery and more chemo, and spent most of his first six weeks of treatment in hospital. Despite finishing this first-line treatment last October, he relapsed in January.

He began a new course of treatment involving stronger chemotherapy, longer hospital stays, a stem cell transplant and radiotherapy, which finished on July 9.

Kit will now undergo regular scans and tests to check for any remaining cancer, while he'll also need lifelong heart, liver and kidney health checks due to the toxicity of treatment.

Johnny added: "Having to go through it again was really hard.

"There's huge relief in getting through treatment, but this next stage of post-treatment scans is a scary period. We've already been through one round of treatment and finding out his cancer never really went away was horrendous.

"When you go through treatment, you've got a plan and you're following it the best you can. Now we're into uncharted territory, and you can't really plan for the future at all.

"Scan dates are nerve-wracking experiences and in between them, we've just got to try and keep on going

"He comes home from the hospital and acts like nothing has ever happened. Most of the time he's been really upbeat, happy, energetic."

Johnny is now taking on the Scottish Half Marathon to raise funds for Kit's Fund, a Special Named Fund at CCLG: The Children & Young People's Cancer Association.

He said: "Kit knows people are championing him and flying his flag. He really likes it.

"I think people are just really keen to be able to do something, to be able to contribute a bit and show they care.

"I really believe that having community support and knowing that people are there for you plays a big part in getting through cancer.

"If we can all rally behind Kit and show him that we care for him then he has a better chance of being cured."

Johnny added: "Kit's got such a positive approach to life. His resilience and his attitude throughout all this has been amazing.

"He's handled all of it way better than I imagined. I'm very proud of him."