My Mighty Son, by Virag Wheeler-Mezei : A heartfelt and powerful account (book review)

Review by Richard Beesley

We were recently invited to read and review My Mighty Son by Virag Wheeler-Mezei, and I'm very glad we did. The book is an account of an incredible and very moving true story, of endurance and perseverance, of never giving up, and of profound love for a child and recognising the work of God despite everything around us.

The book follows the life of Virag Wheeler-Mezei. She grew up in Hungary before moving to the UK in 2008 where she met and fell in love with James. They got married (in a beautiful castle in Hungary, surrounded by family and friends) then started to build their lives in Bath. My wife and I met in Bath, too, and it is a truly special place for us as well. After a while Virag became pregnant and they were delighted when baby Luke was born.

By all accounts, Luke was a special baby. He was loved deeply by his family, and he appeared to be healthy and growing well. But then the world fell apart for Virag and James, as Luke was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour. He spent a huge amount of time in hospitals in Bristol and Bath, undergoing numerous operations then chemo- and radio-therapy to get the tumour under control. What would have broken many of us, Luke and his parents went through. Despite complications, problems, and mistakes being made by a small number of the many people trying to help, Virag and James stayed strong and stood beside Luke and helped him through each day.

Throughout this book, Virag explains how she heard the voice of God giving her hope, support and guidance. With overwhelming odds, Luke battled against a cancer that was stronger than his medicines, and his parents learned to take on tasks that no parent should have to - cleaning a tracheotomy and replacing the line, for example.

The record of her early years growing up are scattered with little snippets of information, and it gave a sense of how things used to be and how she and her family had lived. The honesty throughout the book is a testimony of Virag and James' love for Luke and each other.

This is a hugely powerful and moving record of what they went through. Virag's raw emotions come through, and she is wonderfully honest.

Not everything in this account is nice to read. It isn't all good news. It's about a little boy who suffered a terrible disease. But much more, it is about the love of his parents, about the hope they experienced, about the miracles along the way - the right people at the right time, the encouragements, the little turns that brought some glimmer of possibilities. This is a book about real people experiencing horrible things, and still loving each other and recognising the love of God through it all. This book is about hope.


For more information about Luke's story, visit mymightyson.co.uk where you can order a copy of the book, and find out more about Virag, James and Luke.

Disclosure: Virag and James sent us this book to keep for the purposes of review. All opinions are our own. And this is definitely a book worth reading.