Four-year-old boy from Sussex in desperate battle to beat aggressive form of cancer

• ITV Meridian's Stacey Poole has been speaking to Teddy's mum, Katherine Lichten.

A four-year-old boy from Sussex with a rare and aggressive form of cancer is facing a desperate fight to survive.

Teddy Lichten has already had four months of chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, a month of radiotherapy and is about to start six months of immunotherapy.

But the cancer is likely to return once this treatment stops so his family is trying to raise £300,000 to take him to America for a pioneering vaccine.

It's hoped it would dramatically reduce the chances of relapse.

Teddy had just become a big brother when he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, at just three-years-old.

Doctors discovered an 11cm mass on one of his kidney's and sadly the cancer had spread to every part of his body, taking over 60% of his bone marrow.

• Teddy's mother Katherine Lichten describes when the family were given the devastating news.

"When we were told, I felt like my heart was breaking in two," Teddy's mother Katherine Lichten said.

"Your children are a part of your soul living in the outside world.

"You just love them so intensely, and you would give anything for them."

Teddy was given only a 40% chance of survival, and started on a gruelling treatment programme that involved months of chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, radiotherapy and immunotherapy.

Teddy's mum say's he's had to endure more pain and suffering in the past year than any child should have to cope with, due to side effects from the treatment.

But despite multiple undergoing so many treatments, there is a high chance the cancer will return. 50% of children suffer a relapse and then the survival rate falls to just 5-10%.

"I remember one time Teddy telling me that he didn't want to go to hospital," Katherine added.

"And I said 'you need to so you can have your chemo.'

"He asked 'what happens if I don't have my chemo?' That question really broke my heart because the truthful answer was 'if you don't have your chemo, you will die'.

"So I just said to him 'the chemo makes your lump go away.'"

• Teddy spent Christmas 2022 in hospital, too weak to even pull a cracker.

To give Teddy the best chance of survival his parents are fundraising so he can take part in a vaccine trial - for the world's only paediatric cancer vaccine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York.

It costs £300,000, and so far they've raised half the money they need, so there's still a long way to go.

Teddy is due to finish his treatment in January next year and so he needs to be on the trial by then.

• ITV Meridian's Matt Teale speaks to Vicky Inglis from the charity Solving Kids Cancer.

There are also calls for the government to try and improve the outcomes for all children with neuroblastoma, including for youngsters to be eligible for a vaccine.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’re making huge strides in the fight against cancer with the NHS seeing and treating record numbers of cancer patients over the last two years and survival rates improving.

“The National Institute for Health and Care Research is supporting a n ongoing trial for a targeted neuroblastoma drug treatment trial and we have opened a £10 million centre to develop technology to better treat cancers such as neuroblastoma.

“Earlier this month we also signed a ground-breaking deal with BioNtech to start developing individualised cancer vaccines.”

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