Give little Christmas
A FATHER is in a desperate race against time to raise cash over Christmas, hoping to save his son’s life.
Eight-year-old Luke Bell has been given just weeks to live after fighting an aggressive rare form of cancer for the past two years.
Doctors in Britain say there is nothing more they can do for him, but his father Mark believes medics at a Barcelona hospital could cure the youngster if he can find £100,000 to pay for the specialist trial treatment on offer in Spain.
By last night Mark, from Darlington, Co Durham, had raised more than £65,920 and is hoping well-wishers touched by his battling son’s plight will contribute the rest.
Luke was a normal, healthy boy but began to lack energy, looked pale, developed a limp and fell asleep in school.
Initially it was thought he had anaemia, but tests found he was suffering from high-risk neuroblastoma, which is a cancer that forms in nerve tissue.
The shock diagnosis led to Luke undergoing gruelling rounds of blood transfusions, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy which by last Christmas appeared to have cured him. It was a moment his grandmother Carol Bell described as “the best present ever”.
But in April this year a routine scan found two new spots of the disease and a relapse was confirmed.
“It was particularly cruel as he was just about to return to school and he’d only just had his first postchemotherapy haircut,” Carol said.
High risk neuroblastoma is the same form of cancer that struck six-yearold Bradley Lowery, the Sunderland football club supporter who became a celebrity when his close friendship with footballer Jermain Defoe became public. He died in July.
On the Just Giving webpage raising cash for Luke, his father Mark, 37, stated: “We were given the heartbreaking news there are now no viable treatment options for Luke in the UK.
“We are in contact with a hospital in Barcelona to find out if they are in a position to help us. But, as things stand, Luke has been given weeks to live.
“While our focus now is to keep Luke as comfortable and as pain free as possible, we have no intention of giving up the fight. “We’re determined to do all we can to secure the treatment he needs to beat this awful disease. We can’t do that without your support. Please give whatever you can to help us.
“People have already been so generous in giving their love and support to Luke since he was first diagnosed and we’re eternally hopeful that this will continue until he’s cancer free.”
Mark is well-known in the rugby community across the North-east of England as a player for Mowden Park.
He currently captains the second team where thanks to his formidable physique the hooker is nicknamed “Tank”.
In August rugby players from the region took part in a 12-hour dawn to dusk rugby marathon to raise cash for Luke’s care.
“As well as the support from