The family of a four-year-old boy hoping to fly to New York for a cancer vaccine are halfway through their “impossible task” of raising £300,000.
Teddy Lichten was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma last July and given a 40 percent chance of reaching his eighth birthday.
He is due to finish gruelling frontline NHS treatment by the end of this year.
The younger’s parents then plan to take him to the US to access an experimental jab that aims to cut the chance of his cancer returning.
Teddy’s mum Kat, 34, said it felt “like our whole world was imploding” when the aggressive cancer was detected.
READ MORE: The UK must fund trials of child cancer jabs
She added: “When your child is diagnosed and you hear that they’ve got a 40 per cent chance of survival, you want to do absolutely anything in your power to better that.
“We’re in the most stressful period of our lives trying to care for an extremely sick child and we’ve also got a 17-month-old as well, and we’ve also been spearheading a £300,000 fundraising campaign at the same time.”
The vaccine is not available in the UK and a larger international trial is needed to prove whether it works.
Teddy’s family, of Hassocks in West Sussex, is backing the Daily Express’s Back Britain to Beat Childhood Cancer crusade.
Together with charity Solving Kids’ Cancer UK, we are calling on the Government to help fund a transatlantic study which would allow patients to access it here.
Kat said their fundraising had been a “huge burden” but she now believed their mammoth target was within reach.
She explained: “It’s been a long slog to £150,000 and it’s been incredible to see all the support we’ve had from the community, strangers up and down the county and even abroad as well.”
Teddy’s treatment so far has included four months of chemotherapy and two stem cell transplants, one of which led to him spending Christmas Eve in intensive care.
Once he is in remission, the £300,000 would pay for the family to take eight trips to America over three years.
Kat said of the vaccine: “It can’t be available on the NHS until there has been a randomised phase three trial here in the UK. But that would take about 10 years and about £15 million of investment.”
You can find out more about Teddy’s appeal here or donate by text TEDDYL followed by any amount up to £20 to 70085.
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