THE LIVES of a young boy and his family were turned upside down during what was meant to be a routine visit to the opticians.

Ten-year-old Jude Upton, from Milton Keynes, was diagnosed with a brain tumour, later identified as a grade 4 medulloblastoma, following a trip to Specsavers on his eighth birthday in March 2020.

He had suffered from loss of balance, sickness in the mornings, constant headaches, tiredness, a loss of appetite and changes in his personality, including becoming more introverted than usual and not wanting to play football.

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Devastatingly, his cancer has now returned despite craniotomy, Jude working hard to gain back his strength after the operation, and courses of “gruelling” chemotherapy and radiotherapy, followed by months of clean scans.  

Jude’s mum Katie Jefcut described the experience: “We had a couple of weeks at home before returning to Oxford so Jude could have three months of gruelling chemotherapy.

"After that he went to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton for radiotherapy.

“He was so scared that he had to be sedated every day for six weeks, but the staff helped by making him an Iron Man radiotherapy mask, which was really kind because he’s a huge Marvel fan and loves his superheroes.

"He had 45 minutes of radiation on his head and spine each time and hated every minute of it.”

She added: “It’s all been a complete nightmare but Jude’s such a strong boy and is getting through it like an absolute warrior. I don’t know where he gets his strength from sometimes. It’s horrible thinking about everything he has had to go through.”

Jude’s now been accepted onto a MEMMAT trial at the Royal Marsden, which uses antiangiogenic therapy to treat children with recurrent medulloblastoma.

His mum has also arranged for samples from his biopsy to be sent to a company in Greece which will do in-depth tests on the DNA cells of his tumour to identify what is causing them to grow.

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However, this is expensive, so a crowdfunding page was set up.

While the initial target of £5,000 hit, donations keep coming in.

Brain Tumour Research's community development manager Charlie Allsebrook said: “It’s heart-breaking hearing about desperate families seeking life-extending treatment overseas because the same isn’t available here in the UK.

"This needs to change. Brain tumours kill more children than leukaemia and any other cancer yet, historically, just 1 percent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease.

“We’re really grateful to Katie for sharing her story to help raise awareness of this issue as it’s only by working together that we will be able to improve treatment options for patients and, ultimately find a cure.”

September marks Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The fundraiser to help Jude can be found here.

Learn more about Brain Tumour Research here.