Rob Delaney has penned a heartbreaking essay on his son’s cancer battle.
The ‘Catastrophe’ star was struck by tragedy earlier this year when his son Henry – whom he had with his wife Leah – lost his battle brain cancer aged just two years old, and has now shared an emotional essay that was originally penned as part of a book he wanted to release for parents of sick children.
Rob decided to stop writing the book when he saw his son’s last "bad MRI scan", saying he and his family "just wanted to be with him around the clock and make sure his final months were happy."
Explaining why he posted the excerpt on Medium on Monday (17.09.18), the 41-year-old comedian wrote: "The reason I’m putting this out there now is that the intended audience for this book was to be my fellow parents of very sick children. They were always so tired and sad, like ghosts, walking the halls of the hospitals, and I wanted them to know someone understood and cared.
"I’d still like them to know that … But I can’t write that book anymore because our family’s story has a different ending than I’d hoped for. Maybe I’ll write a different book in the future, but now my responsibility is to my family and myself as we grieve our beautiful Henry."
The essay focuses on the months surrounding Henry’s diagnoses and how his family helped the tot deal with his treatment, and Rob says that despite his son’s condition, he felt "excited" to see him at the hospital.
Rob writes: "I may wish Henry wasn’t in the hospital and it may make me f***ing sick that my kids haven’t lived under the same roof for over a year. But I’m always, always happy to enter the hospital every morning and see him. It’s exciting every day to walk into his room and see him and see him see me."
The ‘Deadpool 2’ star cuts off his essay "abruptly", as he never finished the story before he learned Henry’s diagnoses was terminal.
He said: "I’m aware this ends somewhat abruptly. The above was part of a book proposal I put together before Henry’s tumor came back and we learned that he would die. I stopped writing when we saw the new, bad MRI. My wife and his brothers and I just wanted to be with him around the clock and make sure his final months were happy. And they were."
Rob Delaney’s heartbreaking essay on son’s cancer battle
