THE charity set up by Oscar Hughes’ parents Marie and Ian after he died of a brain tumour in 2014, aged nine, has now raised about half a million pounds to help other children facing similar illnesses.

Marie said that since their youngest son Milo was also diagnosed with brain tumours earlier this year, the need for OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity had become even more obvious.

The charity helps fund research into the tumours suffered by children and young people.

For example, it gave The Brain Tumour Charity £75,000 to co-fund a ground-breaking clinical trial which aimed to find out if youngsters could receive less toxic chemotherapy and lower radiotherapy doses without reducing their survival chances.

Marie said the charity had received fantastic support, for example at a ball just before the lockdown which was attended by 170 people and raised about £10,000.

Fundraising had since been hampered by the pandemic but would get underway again in due course.

She also said she personally had also received wonderful support from the community in Dunnington since Milo fell ill, with people for example offering her lifts to hospital, bringing her meals and doing shopping for her.

l For more information about OSCAR’s charity, or to donate, go to https://www.oscarspbtc.org/.