THE family of a teenage boy with cancer who has been given just months to live are pinning their hopes on lifesaving overseas treatment - but need vital funds to make it happen.

Toni Ilsley from Emmer Green is hoping Immunotherapy treatment in Mexico will help her 13-year-old son Charlie explaining it is a matter of “life or death”.

In March, Charlie was given just months to live following an ongoing battle with cancer having been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, the most high-grade brain tumour found in children.

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It comes after doctors announced his most recent chemotherapy treatment at the John Radcliffe Hospital had not been effective and doctors said there was nothing else they could do to help Charlie.

The family now needs to raise around £50,000 for the treatment and to cover the costs of flying and accommodation.

Toni added: “Without it I don’t think we will see 14, no way.”

Charlie was diagnosed with the tumour when he was only eight years old, following weeks of unexplained vomiting and neck pain.

Following treatment, he went into remission in 2016, but in March 2018 the cancer returned after a routine scan picked up five tumours on his spine.

The teenager then underwent treatment for brain and secondary spinal cancer in Turkey, which cost more than £81,000.

Charlie was given the all clear and began Immunotherapy treatment in Germany to prevent the cancer from returning.

However, following a routine scan in November last year, doctors confirmed there were cancer cells in Charlie's spinal fluid.

Charlie then had two rounds of Immunotherapy (slightly different to before) in Germany costing £20,000 each time.

Alongside this, Charlie had an NHS funded operation at the beginning of January where an Ommaya reservoir was fitted to allow chemotherapy to be administered directly into his spinal fluid.

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Chemotherapy administered at the John Radcliffe hospital had not been effective and chemotherapy at The Harley Street Hospital in London had to be halted due to the coronavirus.

Toni said she was in “shock” and thought to herself “that’s it now”.

A few weeks later she saw Charlie was fine in himself and was showing no symptoms. She thought something else needed to be done to help her son.

The treatment in Mexico is Charlie’s next option and Toni said as soon as the doctor gives it the go ahead, they will be flying to Mexico.

She said: “We haven’t got time to hang around.”

She added if the treatment gives them two more years with Charlie, there might be more available in the future.

She is hoping it will be the “third time lucky”.

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