An eight-year-old boy who had recently been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer for the third time has sadly died.
The parents of Lee Belgium had been raising money for treatment abroad for their son's Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
But a post on the Facebook group ‘Fight for Lee’s life’ - which had been set up to help with the fundraising efforts - confirmed Lee had unexpectedly passed away on Saturday (April 6).
Family launches desperate fundraising appeal for Lee who has cancer for third time
Superhero fan Lee, from Emersons Green, was first diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia when he was six.
After battling the disease twice already in his young life, Lee was almost given a bone marrow transplant which could have changed his life for the better.
However, his hopes of having the operation were dashed when doctors found the cancer cells had come back last year.
At the time doctors from the NHS had said there was nothing more they could do for Lee.
But determined to save their son's life, Lee's parents Clare Boxall and Simon Belgium researched suitable clinical trials around the world, and started fundraising in earnest to find treatment - eventually settling on a facility in Turkey.
More than £80,000 had been raised for Lee’s treatment and he was set to travel to Turkey at the end of December, however a combination of a strong course of chemotherapy, pneumonia, and a fungal infection in his lung meant that he was too unwell to travel at the time.
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Lee was expected to fly across the continent at the end of March to begin the trials, but sadly that never happened.
The youngster loved Star Wars, superheroes and video games.
