SCHOOLBOY Oscar Hughes packed a lot into his short life.

He was a keen footballer who got to be team mascot for his Manchester United heroes, and a cancer sufferer who never lost his winning smile and who completed the final lap of a fundraising marathon relay having had surgery to remove a brain tumour earlier in the year.

Speaking at his funeral almost a year ago, tennis coach Marius Bernard said: “Oscar taught me more about life and inspiration than I could teach him about tennis.”

It was Oscar’s big heart and his unfailing courage and determination that saw him named Child of the Year in the York Community Pride Awards in 2013.

Tragically, that courage and heart – and that beaming Oscar smile – couldn’t save him. He lost his battle with medulloblastoma a year ago, dying peacefully in his parents’ arms ten days after suffering a relapse. He was just nine years old.

A year later, however, his memory remains as inspirational as ever.

The charity set up in his honour has continued raising funds. And it is now donating £26,000 towards a trial in Birmingham that is looking at new ways of treating the highly aggressive kind of tumour that Oscar himself suffered from.

The trial will look at the effect of delivering chemotherapy drugs directly into the brains of children with medulloblastoma, rather than administering them orally or intravenously.

It is through research such as this that we are able to develop new ways of tackling cancer. Oscar’s mum Marie said today his family would never get over losing him. “But we want his legacy to be one of hope,” she said.

This donation, and the fundraising that goes on in Oscar’s name, is all about hope. Oscar would have been mightily proud...