'Devastated' family set up fundraiser to help save 'brave' Northampton schoolboy with rare cancer

A fundraising page has been set up to raise £250,000 for potentially life-saving treatment for a “brave” 10-year-old Northampton boy with a rare form of cancer.

On August 16, Weston Favell Primary schoolboy Jesse Mansfield was diagnosed at Northampton General Hospital with high risk Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML), which affects around 100 children a year.

Two weeks into treatment, Jesse was told he was in the 'high risk category' of AML patients after doctors discovered he has a rare gene rearrangement that affects less than 10 percent of children with the condition.

Jesse's parents, Dave and Zoe, said: "The news of Jesse’s illness has come as a shock to our whole family. Jesse has always been fit and healthy boy and very rarely poorly, so this news to Zoe and I has left us absolutely devastated and our lives have been turned upside down. The news that we received on that day is something that you never expect to hear about your own child, it is simply incomprehensible."

Jesse has been in hospital, Nottingham and now Birmingham, since his diagnosis and has not been home since, according to the family.

Dave and Zoe said: "In these last 11 weeks of hospitalisation Jesse has demonstrated more strength than we knew possible. Jesse has been through more in this time than most adults will in a lifetime: operations for Hickman lines, chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations, eight biopsies, bowel infection, chest infection, the most severe, aggressive and uncomfortable rashes, feeding tubes, hair loss, heart scans, MRI scans, the list feels endless.

Despite all of this, Jesse is fighting with every ounce of strength that he has and doing whilst worrying about upsetting his parents - this boy is simply remarkable and anybody who knows Jesse knows that he has the biggest heart and personality."

If a bone marrow transplant is not possible for Jesse, the family say their next best option is paying for chemotherapy treatment in the USA or the Far East, which is not available on the NHS and would cost circa £250,000.

The family say they are fundraising "to help prepare for the unpredictable next steps in fighting this awful disease” and “to be ready to fight with Jesse”.

Dave and Zoe said: "Reaching out and asking for help is something we’ve never done and wouldn‘t ever want to have to do - we now have no choice but to do just that, we need help and lots of it. We will do everything in our power to help save our beautiful boy and what we need to do now is ask for the kindness of others.

"These funds will help to cover some of the costs that we will face in seeking potential treatment abroad and also to cover contingency costs should Jesse need more complicated treatments or prolonged hospital stays as well."

So far, at the time of writing (Monday, November 7), Jesse's JustGiving page has raised £31,793 from 708 supporters.

If for any reason the treatment is not needed by Jesse, the parents said the money will be used to fund research into childhood cancers.

Click here to donate to Jesse's JustGiving page.

Dave wanted to give a special thanks to Ashley Bradshaw of Bradders Academy and Standens Barn FC who raised more than £500 from a football card for Jesse.