Welcome to the Alexander’s Journey website.  This site (like the social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) is about a British boy called Alexander Goodwin. Alex is an extraordinary young man: who gives hope and inspires those fighting their own battles, someone who cares more about others and the welfare of animals and nature than himself, someone who is passionate about owls, birds of prey and conservation.  A young man who is passionate about history, natural history and Archery and who loved to swim, Fence and play Rugby.  A boy who is also part of the Police Family and to whom his faith is very important. He is also a boy that has fought a very rare form of childhood cancer called Ewing Sarcoma and has had major surgery on his leg and pelvis.

Alexander became ill in December 2015 at just eight years of age.  He began struggling with constant leg pain.  He was misdiagnosed in the United Kingdom for six months until finally being told he had a rare form of cancer of the pelvis and right leg.  By that time, in constant pain and deteriorating rapidly, Alex was confined to a wheelchair. Being informed in October 2016 by doctors in England that he may have just months to live and any surgery, would be so radical, that it would result in significant loss of functionality and reduce the quality of time he had left, people rallied together to try and provide the funding needed to find an answer. His father, a Police Officer in the United Kingdom, reached out to his brothers in blue across the Atlantic and after just a few weeks the family found themselves in America’s mid- west receiving treatment from a collaboration of specialists from hospitals in two states as well as support from strangers that would become friends. 

From December 2016 to August 2017 Alex received life-saving treatment in Kansas City including further chemotherapy and complex & pioneering surgery where his right femur and knee were removed and replaced by a state-of-the-art telescopic prosthetic bone.  He also received reconstructive surgery to a diseased acetabulum and specialist stereo-tactic radiation therapy to lesions on his iliac crest. 

Alex returned home in September 2017 and required intensive checks and scans as well as essential femur extensions every three months back in Kansas City.  He has also undergone brutal physiotherapy and treatment on his foot and leg as a result of the impactive surgery he has endured to get him out of his wheelchair permanently and eventually, it is hoped, not even needing the use of walking aids.  He is also receiving limited psychiatry support for post-traumatic stress that has left him suffering from terrible nightmares every night.

Several years later he has now outgrown his prosthetic femur which is now fully extended. He now lives with almost permanent discomfort and the family wait for the opportunity for Alex to have the final surgery to make the final lengthening of his femur to ensure his spine and hips are aligned.

We hope that this surgery will take place this in 2023 or very early in 2024. Alex undertakes regular and intensive physical therapy and osteopathic & chiropractic treatment. Despite these fundamental challenges is he is ever optimistic, loving, kind, giving, generous, positive and full of hope for the future. 

Thank you for walking this path with us and for your support.