Liam is almost four. He likes cars and football, but most of all he loves the ocean and is already on the way to becoming a budding surfer.

But Liam is in a battle for his life. He has high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer.

Liam is currently receiving immunotherapy treatment - hopefully the last stage of frontline treatment in the UK. His family hope he will show no evidence of disease at that point.

But neuroblastoma has a high relapse rate and if Liam’s cancer did return, his chances of long-term survival would drop to less than one in ten.

His family are appealing for your help to raise £232,000 by August 2020, so Liam can receive a clinical trial in New York that aims to stop his neuroblastoma from coming back.

Liam’s Story told by mum Claire

I was nine months pregnant and Liam was just starting a new pre-school. He loved it so much. It was long hours and I thought perhaps his sleeping in the afternoon was due to a new busier day.

He also started having night terrors, which then I thought explained the tiredness during the day. But when he developed mouth ulcers I went straight to the doctor and was told that it was a virus which could take about three weeks to work out of his system.

I only managed to wait a few days as he got more tired, irritable and didn’t want to eat much. It was then he went for blood tests and we were referred to a Pediatric Consultant. They felt a lump and weren’t sure if it was perhaps something minor or the absolute worst… a tumour…

It all happened so quickly. I was told to call my husband immediately and after an ultrasound, a CT scan and various blood tests we were told it was cancer, and we needed to act fast.

We were obviously devastated, in total shock and we didn’t know how to comprehend what we had just been told. We had no words and only tears and questions.

Liam’s dad, Mike, immediately stopped working and focused on what I can only describe as the worst time of our lives. We spent the next two to three weeks in two different hospitals sleeping next to Liam and we were all utterly exhausted emotionally and physically.

Liam went under general anaesthetic for a biopsy of the tumour and a Hickman Line was inserted (this goes into the main artery in the heart). He also had a Bone Aspirate to check whether the cancer had spread to his bone marrow.