In April 2016, my friend's 6 year old daughter, Kaleigh, was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) an aggresive form of brain tumour, which currently has a 0% survival rate.

DIPG is a childhood tumour, which mainly strikes children between the ages of 4 and 10. The average survival time is 9 months from the date of diagnosis. Around 40 children are diagnosed in the UK each year and currently only 1% of the national spend has been allocated to researching brain tumours.

Symptoms include headaches, vomiting, balance / co-ordination / walking problems, abnormal eye movements / blurred vision, fits or seizures and abnormal head position such as a wry neck or stiff neck.

Kaleigh has just undergone a second round of radiotherapy, to try and shrink the tumour which unfortunately has grown. They are now waiting and if Kaleigh is in a good clinical condition and the tumour has not spread, they are hoping she can start CED treatment, which sadly is not covered on the NHS.

I am running the Vitality North London Half Marathon on 12th March 2017, to help raise funds towards the cost of this pioneering treatment and to raise awareness for DIPG. If you could find it in your heart to donate, then it would be very much appreciated. There is also a link below for the DIPG petition, to help the fight against DIPG and to convince the UK government to provide more research into brain tumours. This will hopefully help future generations of children who get diagnosed with this horrible illness. Yang and Scott will be very grateful for any help that you can give.

Links are below for the petition and the story behind Kaleigh's fight with this illness.

Global Petition: https://t.co/SPQZoM5t1J

Story behind petition: http://kaleigh.ethanet.co.uk/

Kaleigh's Trust - A battle with DIPG: https://m.facebook.com/Kaleighstrust/