Cancer treatment gave teenager new tumour

A TEENAGER must go abroad for a high-tech operation to remove a tumour – believed to be the result of his cancer treatment.

Billy White, 16, had radiation therapy and a bone-marrow transplant aged four after being diagnosed with leukaemia.

He had been free of cancer for about a decade. But he now has a rare form of facial cancer which is likely to be the result of the treatment he had as a child. The tumour, on the roof of his mouth, is so close to his brain that the only answer is proton beam therapy, which the NHS had initially refused to fund.

Billy’s family set up a Just Giving page to raise the £160,000 required, but on Friday they heard the NHS has agreed to pay for Billy to have the live-saving treatment in Germany. The £26,000 already raised will go on transport and accommodation for Billy’s family. His uncle Jonny Gunton, 50, from Bristol, said: “He’s had six cycles of chemotherapy.

“The tumour is very near to his brain, they’ve been trying to shrink it so they could operate but it hasn’t worked. Now the NHS have decided to fund Billy’s treatment. We are over the moon.”

Doctors believe it is a ‘radiation-induced’ growth. Jonny added: “The only way to save his life as a child was to have his whole body irradiated.”

He said his nephew has shown amazing courage: “He’s remarkable. I’ve never heard him once complain about any of it.”

This is the third time Billy, of Malvern, Worcs, has had cancer, as he fought off leukaemia aged two before it returned at four.