Parents of brave Hassocks  three-year-old must raise money to help him beat cancer

Since launching their campaign in mid-February with neuroblastoma specialist charity Solving Kids' Cancer UK, the family have already raised more than £40,000.

Teddy is a three-year-old from Hassocks who is obsessed with trains. He loves riding trains, going to the station to see the trains, playing with his train set, and watching Thomas and Friends. He is a very funny and clever little boy and is always known by the nurses and doctors for being chatty and singing the Thomas theme tune!

Teddy was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, in July 2022. Since diagnosis, Teddy has had a central line fitted, a biopsy, multiple general anaesthetics for bone marrow aspirates and scans, 14 ng tube insertions, six gruelling rounds of induction chemotherapy, multiple admissions to his local hospital for fevers, a stem cell harvest, high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. He still has another round of high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant to go before he is reviewed for potential surgery, then on to 12 sessions of radiotherapy. Teddy will then complete his frontline treatment with six months of immunotherapy.

Teddy had just turned three and become a big brother to baby Rupert. Throughout the summer the family made multiple trips to the GP with Teddy due to fevers, discomfort and crying at night - first, it was tonsillitis, then an ear infection, which both cleared up with antibiotics. He was lethargic and had a low appetite but that wasn't unexpected given the infections. Then on June 26, Teddy said 'my sides hurt' for the first time.

The next day his mother Katherine took him to the doctor who examined him thoroughly and was happy with his condition. Afterwards, Teddy spent hours running around and playing at soft play like every other child. But during the night, he cried continuously whilst his mum held him and moaned 'mummy I'm tired, mummy it hurts'.

“I knew something was very wrong,” says mum Katherine.

Teddy was taken to the hospital the next morning where he was admitted with suspected appendicitis but discharged the next day. However, a few days later the pain came back and he was once again admitted after going to A&E. After a few days when his infection markers were rising but no source of infection was found, he had an ultrasound.

"A consultant walked into the room and whispered to the ultrasound technician 'where did you see the mass?' and my heart stopped. The next day he had blood tests and an MRI, and we were told our precious boy had a type of cancer called neuroblastoma and our world shattered. That night I cried so hard I thought my heart would break in two."

Teddy's future is uncertain, as high-risk neuroblastoma is a particularly aggressive and complex cancer to treat. Sadly, the disease returns in almost 50% of children and if this happens, less than one in ten children will survive.    Katherine and Alastair have teamed up with the charity, Solving Kids’ Cancer, a specialist neuroblastoma charity, to help them raise the funds and access potentially life-saving treatment. This could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.      You can support Teddy’s campaign by donating through his fundraising page or by texting ‘TEDDYL’ to 70085 followed by any whole amount up to £20. You can follow Teddy’s story on Facebook and Instagram (@teddyandthebigc).