These are the latest ECHO headlines this morning.
Boy, 9, who thought he had long covid given 'bombshell' diagnosis
A boy who thought he had long covid has been given a shock cancer diagnosis.
Freddie Woollard, nine, from Ellesmere Port, started feeling unwell in November 2021 after contracting coronavirus. When Freddie's symptoms persisted, his family began to think he was suffering with long covid however, in January, he was diagnosed with Wilms tumour.
Wilms tumour is a type of kidney cancer that affects around 85 children in the UK each year, and Freddie's dad Max, 33, described his son's diagnosis as a "bombshell".
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Max told the ECHO: “You just don’t expect it. It’s the sort of thing you see on the news but until it actually happens to you, you think you’re invincible. It's just potluck. It was an absolute bombshell.
“Freddie's at a difficult age. The one thing he keeps asking is ‘why me?’ He knows that there’s something seriously wrong with him but he can’t get his head around why it's happening to him.”
Read the full story here.
Strangers 'saved' dad's life after he collapsed in middle of village
A group of strangers stepped in when a dad-of-two collapsed outside a restaurant.
Colin Fyles was walking to Paint and Paper in Birkdale village on Wednesday, June 8 to get decorating supplies for his granddaughter's bedroom when he suddenly collapsed. As the 79-year-old hit the floor, strangers surrounded him and started to give him CPR, with one off-duty nurse leading the life-saving first aid on the scene.
The former physics teacher suffered a cardiac arrest after he left his wife to get the bus to Southport town centre, as she went past on the bus she saw chaos unfolding but couldn't tell it was her husband. Eileen Fyles, 75, began ringing her husband when she got off the bus but when there was no answer it dawned on her that the man on the floor receiving treatment was in fact her husband.
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Eventually, a doctor at Southport A&E answered, her daughter, Catherine Neilson, has revealed. When speaking to the ECHO, Catherine revealed that her dad was a fit 79-year-old who you wouldn't have expected to have collapsed in the street.
She said: "It feels absolutely amazing to have these people help my dad because I don't know if I would risk trying to do CPR on somebody. I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know if the people that stopped to help immediately had any medical training, just loads of people rushed over to him and started trying to do things to him straight away."
Read more here.
Merseyside bus fares will soon be reduced to just £2
Bus passengers across the Liverpool City Region will soon be able to travel anywhere for no more than £2.
The new single adult fare has now been ratified by the city region's Combined Authority at its meeting on Friday. This means that some passengers will see a saving of up to 13% in the cost of a single journey regardless of which service they use.
The agreement will also see young people continue to benefit from all day unlimited travel for just £2.20 by capping MyTicket until 2025. While the plans have been rubber stamped, the new prices won't come in immediately.
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The new fare is subject to agreement with the bus operators and for an initial three-year period. The ECHO understands the hope is that the new fares will be implemented by the autumn.
Speaking after the fare cap plan was agreed, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “This marks another massive step on our journey to revolutionise our region's buses. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on buses to get about every day, yet too often they tell me that they are still too expensive, too unreliable and too confusing - I want to put that right."
Full story here.
