Just before Easter, Ben, one half of my friends' 11 year old twin boys, became poorly with what doctors thought was a viral infection. After several A&E attendances and visits to doctors, it turned out to be a brain tumour.

It’s hard to imagine the shock this has been for Julie (Mom), her family and of course his twin brother Jack. Ben has been in (the fantastic!) Birmingham Children’s Hospital where he had the tumour removed just over a week ago. This has affected Ben’s right hand side, he now needs a wheelchair, having tests to see extent and they are learning to understand how else this will affect Ben and what other changes or adaptations he may need. He needs to wait 4 weeks until after his operation when he will have gruelling radio & chemo therapy 5 days a week for 6 weeks.

Ben has been diagnosed with glimoblastoma multi-forme which is an aggressive cancer. The survival rate that they have given Ben is a 20% chance of living 5 years. The hospital have told Julie to encourage Ben to make a bucket list, aged 11...