A boy whose fight against cancer touched the nation's hearts is finally out of hospital.
An astonishing half a million pounds was raised by well-wishers to help Oscar Saxelby-Lee, now six, battle leukaemia.
More than 5,000 people queued to see whether they could be stem cell donors when he was diagnosed.
Oscar had a bone marrow transplant last June after a matching donor was found.
But in October the leukaemia returned, devastating his mum Olivia Saxelby and dad Jamie Lee.
They raised £500,000 in three weeks, the fastest online charity appeal ever, to pay for revolutionary treatment in Singapore.
Oscar flew there at Christmas for life-saving cell therapy and a second bone marrow transplant.
And in January his delighted parents revealed there was no sign of the disease remaining.
Olivia, 26, and Jamie, 23, yesterday shared a photo showing Oscar giving a huge thumbs up as he left Singapore’s National University Hospital.
Olivia wrote: “He’s only gone and done it! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to our AMAZING team at NUH you made miracles happen!”
Jen Kelly, director of the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust, called the news “wonderful”.
Oscar’s headteacher Kate Wilcock said: “We are absolutely blown away – the dream has become a reality. Isn’t it the best news ever? A very emotional day.”
Oscar had to go to Singapore because the revolutionary CAR-T cell therapy he had is not available on the NHS.
It involves removing and genetically modifying a patient’s immune cells, known as T cells, and multiplying them in the lab.
They become chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) and are put back in the patient’s blood to find and kill the cancer cells.
Last October Great Ormond Street Hospital in London carried out a CAR-T trial to treat leukaemia with “promising” results.
Oscar is being isolated in Singapore to avoid Covid-19.
He will stay there for several months before returning home to Worcester.
