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CAYDEN couldn’t wait to tell Father Christmas what he wanted under the tree on December 25.

“An electric drum kit please,” the 11-year-old says softly into the Big Man’s ear.

He smiles and nods as giggling little sisters Ellis-Mae and Liannah take their turn telling Santa their wishes, a mermaid doll and a gymnastics bar.

But for Cayden, his drum kit is extra special. Because he can’t see, he lives his life through sounds instead.

Cayden was a normal boisterous boy of his age until March 4 this year when one morning everything changed.

“He woke up one morning and couldn’t see – he went blind overnight,” mum Carol Le Roy-Tickner explains. “We rushed him to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, who found a brain tumour sat right on his optic nerve.”

The little lad was rushed straight into surgery to remove the cancer and a tough course of chemotherapy followed.

But sadly a scan in July showed the tumour had grown and a follow-up in November revealed it was incurable.

Magical

“It’s been a crazy and devastating year but we’re determined to give him the best Christmas yet,” Carol says. “He lost his sight overnight and wants to live life normally. He wants a drum kit because he is really into sounds now he can’t see.”

The family, from Haverhill in Suffolk, cling to the hope that now it has stabilised they can enjoy as much time together as possible.

Which is why memories such as this magical trip to meet Santa Claus in Lapland mean the world to them.

“It’s been tough but we are trying to get on with things,” Carol says. “I feel like it’s horribly unfair.”

The family were selected by When You Wish Upon A Star, the charity that makes dreams come true for sick children in the UK, and were able to travel to Roveniemi, in Finland’s Arctic Circle also known as Lapland, for the trip of a lifetime.

“It’s brilliant – the charity, staff and medical team are fantastic,” Carol says. “We’d never be able to afford anything like this and to have the whole family here means everything to us.”

The charity needed to raise more than