Silverlining’s first annual pledge to charity

19th December 2019

We have been so moved by the story behind local Bristol charity Little Hero, it has inspired us to donate to a different cause each year.

Little Hero are currently raising £100,000 to fight childhood brain tumours in memory of 6-year old boy Will. His family and friends established Little Hero to raise money to:

– Fund research into more effective primary treatments for the most aggressive varieties

– Support other families fighting this savage disease

– Push for change in primary cancer care methods, targeting specific genetic varieties and refocus towards bespoke treatment and innovation rather than protocol and dogma

Little Hero, littlehero.org.uk

28th Feburary 2019

Our beautiful little boy Will was an adventurous and cheeky 6 year old, full of beans and with a real love for life. Sadly, we recently lost him following a 9 month battle with a particularly aggressive type of Medulloblastoma, a childhood Brain Tumour.

Medulloblastoma is the most common high grade childhood tumour, accounting for 15-20% of all childhood brain tumours. Whilst being caught early, Will’s tumour was identified as having high risk and fast growing genetics (Group 3) and had already spread through his cerebrospinal fluid coating parts of both the brain and spinal cord.

Will’s surgery was a great success, he fully physically recovered (playing football on the wards!) and had access to the established ‘Gold Standard’ Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy treatment. Despite all of this, Will relapsed during the end of his treatment and quickly succumbed to its aggressive progression within a month of the relapse.

With hindsight and in light of very recent advances in genetic understanding, it is clear the ‘Gold Standard’ treatment was unlikely to be successful in curing a Group 3 variety that had already spread. The ‘Gold Standard’ is an under researched, 30 year protocol that has not developed significantly over that time. New advances in genetics are confirming its ineffectiveness in fighting the most aggressive and devastating types of Medulloblastoma such as Will’s.

For more information and to donate go to: Just Giving
Or head over to the Facebook page: Littlehero.org.uk