Cash for Kids are proud to be helping the appeal of a wonderful little boy – Charlie!

Charlie is suffering from an aggressive form of childhood cancer. Charlie is receiving intensive treatment, however should it not work, or should Charlie relapse the only option is for Charlie to travel to America for treatment. This will cost £300,000.

"Hi everyone. On my 5th birthday, 10th January 2011, instead of enjoying birthday cake and presents I was diagnosed with an aggressive childhood cancer called High Risk stage IV Neuroblastoma, which means I’m more likely to not get better. The doctors told my mummy I had about a 30% chance of living. I started chemotherapy on the 18th January 2011 and had it every 10 days until the end of March. My hair fell out but i never once complained about it, in fact i quite enjoyed not having to pull my usually very long eyelashes out of my eyes! I then had to have surgery to remove the bump that had grown above my kidney which left me with a really cool scar that goes from one side of my tummy to the other. However, it hurt a lot but the nurses were very nice. Next I had a stem cell harvest, a further week’s high dose chemotherapy which was very toxic and then a stem cell transplant. The high dose chemo left me feeling very tired and sick. I was very glad to be home after spending 6 weeks in Leeds General Infirmary. Then in August 2011 I had 3 weeks of radiotherapy which meant travelling to Leeds every day. This was really hard as the long journey made my bum and legs ache as i had lost so much weight from being sick all the time. In the September I started immunotherapy which is medicine to help my body learn to fight and kill cancer cells, the medicine is the goody, the cancer cells are the baddy. I had 5 cycles of this which was 2 weeks in hospital every month until it finished on 28th January 2012. This was the hardest treatment of all by far and I was very poorly, it was the worst pain I had ever been in. I ended up in intensive care for a short while as the medicine was so strong, this frightened my mummy very much but I was more bothered that there wasn’t a TV in the room!

My family have been very sad, I keep smiling though because it makes them smile, especially my mummy.  On the 20th February 2012 after a week of re tests/scans the doctor told my mummy that they could see no evidence of cancer, no more lumps and bumps!!!! This was the best news EVER!!

 

But unfortunately it DOES NOT mean I am cured.

 

I have to go back to hospital every 12 weeks to see if the cancer has returned. My Mummy has been doing lots and lots to get me better but she needs to raise lots of money to make sure I stay better because although the treatment has worked so far the cancer I have has a very high rate (80%) of coming back any time, especially in the first 2 years post treatment. I don't want any more lumps and bumps; I was fed up with the last lot. The UK do not have any more treatments if I get poorly again, only America or Germany and they can cost around £300,000.   The UK would consider me incurable and I would only have a very short time left with my family. 

In all other ways I am just a regular kid! I love anything to do with ben 10, Spiderman, superman and any other action hero! I love to dress up and play games with my little sister Molly and I love to cuddle my baby brother Archie. I love being a big brother. If you can help my mummy raise the money she will need to take me abroad for treatment if my illness returns that would be really nice of you. The more help she gets the more time she can spend with me, which is good because I love my mummy very much.   If Charlie does not need the money, it will go towards saving another child’s life and research to find a cure.

 

Thanks everyone. Love Charlie xx"