Race to save brain tumour boy after NHS Covid delays

£500K PLEA TO TREAT LAD AGED 7

-  Amy Sharpe and Nicola Small

A FAMILY is urgently trying to raise £500,000 so that a boy whose brain tumour surgery was delayed due to Covid can get treatment abroad.

The parents of Alexander Josephs, seven, think his 20% odds of beating his cancer with NHS treatments would have been far better if not for the pandemic’s impact.

An MRI scan revealing his tumour, initially thought benign, got lost in the chaos – then an op to remove it was delayed three months as Covid cases overran hospitals.

Mum Rhonda said: “We don’t blame the hospital, we know they are doing their best to save him. We just feel unlucky this happened to him in such unprecedented times.”

The 43-year-old and husband Jamaine, 44, hope to raise £500,000 for pioneering treatment in Germany, which he will travel there for once a month for up to two years.