In April 2026, Emily will be taking on the London Marathon to raise money for Solving Kids' Cancer, to support Elliot & other children affected by Neuroblastoma.

In July 2024, aged just 15months old, Elliot was diagnosed with stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma and life for the family changed overnight. You never expect to be told that your child has cancer, but as a seemingly perfectly healthy baby, this was a huge shock to the family. This devastating diagnosis is an aggressive childhood cancer that carries around a 50% chance of long-term survival at diagnosis.

Elliot quickly began an intensive treatment protocol which went on for the next 16months. He faced 8 cycles of induction chemotherapy, two surgeries to remove tumours - one 10hour procedure on his primary tumour in his abdomen and one which resulted in the removal of one of his hamstring muscles. He then faced high-dose chemotherapy with an autologous stem-cell transplant, 13 cycles of proton beam radiotherapy and 6months of immunotherapy - all by the age of 2. The intensive treatment has taken its toll on Elliot in so many ways and he’s faced many complications along the way, but through everything, his spirit and strength of character has never wavered.

Elliot is a truly remarkable little boy. He has the most infectious character and makes those around him belly laugh every day. He’s at his happiest when playing with his older sister, Callie, who he shares a magical bond with. Elliot has been through so much at such a young age but never fails to amaze his parents with his incredible positivity and strength.

In November 2025, Elliot completed front line treatment and rang the bell at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. He then began DFMO, a clinical trial drug aiming to prevent relapse which Elliot will be on for the next 2 years.

Elliot’s parents, Adam & Emily, wanted to fundraise for SKC to help in the fight against neuroblastoma, but the reality is that Elliot remains at very high risk of relapse and his fight against the disease is far from over. Relapsed neuroblastoma carries a devastating prognosis and treatment options through the NHS are extremely limited. In the event of relapsed neuroblastoma, families find themselves catapulted overnight into a complex world of clinical trials and needing to raise huge funds (often hundreds of thousands of pounds) to access experimental treatment.

Adam & Emily have worked closely with Solving Kids Cancer, to fundraise a pot which will be allocated to Elliot for the next few years should the worst case scenario occur, but their hope is that Elliot never needs to access this funding and the money will be donated to the general funds of SKC to be used to help other children.

Adam & Emily want to do everything possible to ensure that, should the worst happen, Elliot has options. As parents, we cannot live with the thought of looking back and wondering whether we did all we could. We are committed to doing, and continuing to do, everything within our control for our boy.

Which brings us to the marathon!!…

Emily is an irregular runner at best with a strict 10km distance limit! 😂 but she has been working hard in whatever time there is between work, two children and ongoing hospital appointments to up the mileage!

But life on a paediatric oncology ward changes you forever. Having watched Elliot, and so many other inspiring children like him, drag themselves to hell and back fighting day after day, blow after blow to take on such a wretched disease, it feels like a pretty small ask to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other!

We’d be so grateful for anything you are able to donate to support us in our fight against neuroblastoma.

If you want to see Elliot’s journey, we’ve documented his fight on an instagram page: @elliot.barcroft

Thank you! ❤️