Hi! My name is Marc, I'm James's dad & over the years I've helped raise thousands for charities; heart & kidney foundations, youth projects, disaster relief & mental health charities - now I need you to help me raise funds to help my son James.

James is 6 years old & has a tumour in the basal ganglia - it's inoperable & standard treatments won't work without causing further damage to healthy brain tissue, loss of motorneuron function is a given.

There are several private medical centres in America that specialise in tumours of the basal ganglia. They combine specialist surgery/treatments on these otherwise inoperable tumours & is the best way for treatment to move forward - we're determined to access the best & most appropriate specialist treatment for his tumour.

Our story so far....

James had been having violent headaches with vomiting intermitantly over a period of time since the end if 2017 - several trips to the GP & hospital had us thinking that we were being overly concerned parents. It was only due to the persistence of my wife & her motherly instinct feeling something wasn't right with James that a routine appointment for a scan was made.

On the day of the appointment my wife had made plans to meet with friends later in the afternoon - the appointment was just to 'rule out anything nasty'. I felt sick when the phone call came to get to the hospital as soon as I could - the scan showed a shadow, a big shadow.

A consultant explained that the shaded area was probably swelling with a small tumour somewhere amongst the darker area - an MRI scan would show more detail.

The MRI did indeed show more detail, there was no swelling, the dark area is all tumour - it's been there for a while & has intertwined itself with healthy brain tissue making any surgery high risk/complex, complete removal impossible & very difficult to treat with a conventional approach.

...our Jimbob!

As much as he protests - James is known as Jimbob by those nearest & dearest, to everyone else he insists on James-Henrie!!

Parents are biased, but Jimbob is truly a little gentleman - so loving & caring yet full of energy & daring!

I've look through hundreds of photos - it's really hard to find one of him where he's not pulling a silly face or sticking his tongue out!

Jimbob loves to make people laugh & he does, if only I could bottle his laugh, such a breath of fresh air - as long as you're not a doctor or nurse, not fussed on the medical profession at the moment with all the poking & prodding!

...from the family

Update: 16th May 2018

Dear All,

You will be aware that we have been reaching out to different medical professional both here in the UK & in the USA.

We have come to understand that surgery is the only option in Jimbob's case but the high risk of surgery far out weigh any potential benefit given the tumour's current characteristics & therefore will not be looking to raise any further funds, specifically for surgery in the USA, at this time.

Jimbob still has a very rare, large, inoperable tumour which needs to be monitored & managed. We will continue to seek out the best, most appropriate, treatment for him both through the national health service & privately.

Funds raised will only be used to access treatments directly related to Jimbob's tumour, such as treatment through https://www.oncologica.com with any surplus going into brain tumour research. We will keep a public record on the #Bounce4Bob page.

We thank you all for the truly amazing community spirit, hard work & effort that has been made on our behalf, we have been absolutely humbled.

Each year around 11,400 people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour and just 14% of people survive their disease for 10 or more years https://www.gov.uk/government/news Only 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this disease https://www.braintumourresearch.org

We would like to encourage you to forward any donations collected or from future events held in behalf of Jimbob, to promote brain tumour awareness & research with a charity that are currently supporting us, using the reference #Bounce4Bob to:

The Brain Trust : http://brainstrust.org.uk https://www.justgiving.com/brainstrust

Our most sincere & warmest regards,

Marc & Ceri