Police escort for Derbyshire cancer patient heading to prom
William Barlow has been battling a rare form of Hodgkin Lymphoma
There aren’t many teenagers who arrive at their school prom in handcuffs in the back of a police van – but then William Barlow hasn’t had what you would call a normal two years.
Diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin Lymphoma at the age of 14 that severely disrupted his GCSEs, William really wanted to make his Year 11 prom one to remember.
And after hearing about how incredibly he dealt with the brutal treatment, members of our Shirebrook Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) were only too happy to help him arrive in style for the special celebration evening last week.
William said:
“I enjoyed the escort more than the prom and I’m really grateful that the police and fire teams went out of their way to do this for me.
“I’d like to thank them all and Netherthorpe school for supporting this.
“It’s a memory that will last forever for me and my friends and I’m so glad they were able to join in and come with me.”
William underwent an operation lasting more than nine hours in which the lymph nodes on the side of his neck were removed, before undergoing chemotherapy.
He was then given the all-clear but just months later, after a routine MRI scan, it was discovered that the cancer had returned.
This meant another round of chemotherapy for the 16-year-old who is now awaiting the results of his latest MRI scan to see how successful the treatment has been.
Being poorly means William has inevitably missed a lot of school at a time when his classmates at Netherthorpe School have been studying hard in preparation for their GCSEs.
With thoughts turning to the end of the school year, William began making preparations for his prom and there was only one way he had in mind to get to the event at Van Dyk Hotel in Clowne – something which required a little help from Derbyshire Constabulary.
PC Jake Stone from the Shirebrook SNT went to meet William at home in Langwith, and a plan began to form for officers to head to William’s home address on the night of the prom, where he would be ‘arrested’ and placed into the back of a police van, before being driven to the hotel where he would be taken out of the back of the van in handcuffs in front of all of the pupils and teachers and then de-arrested, just in time to enjoy the celebrations.
He hadn’t told any of his classmates what he was planning, and even his two friends Fin and Charlie, who travelled with him on the night, weren’t aware they were going to be handcuffed!
Mum Helen Noble said:
“It was absolutely fantastic. William loved it. He just kept on smiling, he must have had cheek-ache by the end the of the night. Words just aren’t enough to say thank you. This kind of experience isn’t something any amount of money can buy. We are all just so blown away.
“William has such a dry sense of humour so getting ‘arrested’ was just this amazing moment for him. We could hear everyone saying ‘oh my gosh’ when he got out of the van with handcuffs on.”
PC Jake Stone was also inspired by William’s attitude. He said:
“I was told about William’s situation by a friend of his family who also told me that he had his prom upcoming. I met William almost straight away after hearing about him - he is inspirationally brave with a fantastic sense of humour, I couldn’t help but smile after being in his presence and wanted to repay the favour by making his prom as special as we could.
“The smile on William’s face at his prom made all of the planning worthwhile. It’s been a pleasure to meet him and I hope he had the best night possible.”