Teacher to tackle wing walk as brave Henry's cancer battle returns

SIX-YEAR-OLD RANG BELL MARKING END OF CHEMOTHERAPY ... ONLY FOR LEUKAEMIA TO COME BACK JUST NINE MONTHS LATER

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor [e-mail]

A CHATTY little boy is facing the sternest of tests after suffering a cruel reversal in his long battle with leukaemia.

Henry Castle, aged six, had hoped the worst was behind him when, last August, he rang the bell to signify the end of three and a half years of chemo.

But, eight months later, doctors delivered the crushing news that his blood cancer had returned.

By the time he finishes another two-year course of chemo, Henry will have spent more than two-thirds of his life in treatment.

As well as losing his hair, the brave youngster had to be tube-fed through his stomach wall.

After losing the use of his legs, he began working with physios to rebuild his muscles, only to find he needed to restart chemo.

Supporting him at every step through the ordeal has been mum Charlotte.

The single mother from Colwyn Bay has taken him to countless appointments, often spending weeks at a time sleeping on a couch in her son’s room in Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital.