I (Alex Milo's Dad) and my friend Jake Longley are running the Great North in memory of my son Milo. Who lost his life to Wilms Tumour in November 2024.

I'm raising funds for Milo's Mission, a Special Named Fund at CCLG: The Children & Young People’s Cancer Association.

Milo's Story:

This is Milo. Our beautiful, smiley, happy-go-lucky, loving little two-year-old boy. Milo was a force of nature, absolutely bursting with life and he made friends with everyone he met. He loved dinosaurs, trains, planes & helicopters, the playground, complex jigsaw puzzles, reading books, and his family. He was doing so well at nursery and was speaking with the vocabulary of a 3–4-year-old. He loved football and we took him to football practice at least once a week. He was a bit of a jet setter and visited lots of different countries.

Hearing your child has cancer is a parent’s worst nightmare. However, Wilms tumour has a really good prognosis, and when we got to Great Ormond Street Hospital we were told Milo’s cancer was curable and we were so relieved. Milo’s cancer was localised, stage 2 and standard risk, all really good news. Unfortunately, the tumour had also grown into and up his Inferior Vena Cava “IVC” (the main vein in your body) and into the right atrium of his heart. Less than 10% of cases have this extension. It was so scary to see the MRI and see the tumour in Milo’s heart.

Milo’s treatment plan was chemotherapy, followed by complex surgery and more chemotherapy/radiotherapy. Unfortunately, things went wrong pretty much immediately. Milo’s chemotherapy did not shrink his tumour, and instead because the tumour was blocking his IVC, it caused huge liver damage. Milo did survive surgery, but unfortunately destabilised the week after and became very ill and we lost him on the 26th of November 2024.

In Milo’s memory, we want to raise money to help increase awareness and help other children get diagnosed faster.

Milo suffered greatly from the side effects of his chemotherapy treatment. Chemotherapy is very toxic, and even for those children who survive, many have long term health complications from chemotherapy and radiotherapy. We are also raising money to help fund much needed research into kinder treatments for children, so other children don’t have to suffer like Milo.

Milo was a brave and kind boy throughout his life and treatment. We are so blessed to have spent two and a half years with him. In Milo’s memory, we want to make a difference so other families don’t have to go through what we have.