Our 6-year-old son has lots of bruises on his arms and legs. He is still active but I am terrified that he has leukaemia. What should I do?

I am not surprised that an active 6-year-old boy is collecting many bruises. Because you are terrified, I suggest you see your local doctor who will do a blood test to exclude it and other possible causes for excessive bruising.

Bruising by itself is not a common way for leukaemia to show up. Other signs of leukaemia are anaemia with paleness and being less active, an unusual number of infections or unusual types of infections such as mouth ulcers, bone pain or tenderness and sometimes lumps may be found in the neck – although there are many other causes for these.

If the bruising is excessive and he is otherwise well, he may have Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (or ITP for short). This will show up in the blood test and is treatable.

Even in the unlikely case that it is leukaemia nowadays the most common type can be cured in 80-90% of cases but I doubt that your son has leukaemia