AN EMOTIONAL appeal has been made by a family to give their five-year-old son a “fighting chance” of beating cancer.

The Warner family of Farriers Close, Bramley, is fundraising to raise more than £150,000 to send their son Oliver to Barcelona to receive treatment which is not available on the NHS.

Oliver was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma – a type of cancer that forms in certain types of nerve tissue - in 2016 a few weeks before his third birthday, after falling ill at the end of 2015.

After a gruelling 18 months of treatment where he underwent 10 rounds of chemotherapy as well as eight hours’ worth of surgery to remove the main tumour from his abdomen, scans showed that he was completely clear of the disease.

However, in December 2017, Oliver began to feel unwell again and in the New Year, one of the glands in his neck became very enlarged.

Following a meeting with a consultant at Southampton General Hospital, the doctors confirmed the five-year-old had relapsed.

Oliver’s mother, Jo Warner said: “It was heartbreaking to think our little boy would have to, again, endure the horrors of cancer, the treatment it entails and all the dreadful side effects.”

Even though Oliver is responding well to his second course of chemo, the family is looking at further treatments to get rid of any traces of the disease.

Mrs Warner added: “The treatment Oliver would be getting in Barcelona is an antibody, which means that it can target a certain part of the cancerous cells, whereas chemotherapy just kills everything and has more long-lasting side effects.

“From what we know, this treatment would get rid of any remaining cells in Oliver’s body which may not show up in scans.

“After going through all the stress of this once before we want to give Oliver the best fighting chance to beat this, and that is why we need to raise the money to get us to Barcelona.”

The Warner family, completed by dad Matt and Oliver’s younger brother Joshua, three, have teamed up with the charity Solving Kid’s Cancer to help with the campaign.

The charity will help book flights, arrange transport and accommodation for the family, but it is down to them to raise the funds.

Mrs Warner added: “We are looking to do a whole host of events to raise money in Oliver’s name. I know that people at the school [Bramley CofE) have arranged to do a charity head shave to help us.

“If anyone is willing to do anything to help, whether that be a cake sale or just simply make a donation it really will make a difference to Oliver’s life.”

If enough money is raised for the antibody treatment and Oliver can reach full remission, the family will continue to raise funds to aid him to become part of a vaccine trial in New York.

The family is urging people to help raise the funds by either hosting and event or making a donation.

Ex-England rugby union international Will Carling has also backed the campaign on social media.



 

To support the Warner family you can text OLWA99 with an amount between £1 - £10 to 70070 or go to justgiving.com/campaign/oliverwarner.

You can keep up to date with Oliver’s journey by going to the ‘Oliver’s fight against Neuroblastoma’ page on Facebook.