A MOTHER from the Bradford district is hoping for the best ever Christmas present - the return of her little boy after life-saving treatment in America.

Two-year-old Tyler Brown is undergoing proton therapy treatment which doctors hope will save him from a rare form of cancer.

He was expected to have to spend the festive period in the US - but the therapy is proving so successful that his family have been told he could be home for in time for Christmas.

His mum Niki said: "He is doing really well. The tumour has responded well to the chemotherapy and obviously the protons are doing what they should be doing.

"We have been told because he is responding really well he could be home just before Christmas. Just having him home would be like the best Christmas present."

Tyler, is in America with his dad Shaun, while Niki looks after his sisters Olivia, Ellie and Syklar at their home in Wrose, Shipley.

The family were desperate to be re-united over the festive period and a fundraising campaign was set up to help them get together.

Now money raised could be set aside to help with further treatment and to be given to associated charities.

Niki, who grew up in Otley, said: "If he is home, brilliant. If he is not it will be a case of booking a last minute flight and off we go."

She said her daughters, who are aged 11, 12 and five, were excited at the prospect of having their little brother home.

"It is hard for them, they miss him," she said. "Just to get him home will be fantastic."

Tyler was diagnosed in April with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer affecting his spine at the point it joins to his head.

Niki said: "He just gets on with it. I call him a little soldier because he absolutely copes with it. He is brilliant."

When Tyler comes home he will continue with chemotherapy at Leeds General Infirmary and his family hope the cancer will then go into remission.

The Shipley-based charity Little Heroes Cancer Trust charity has already raised £2,900 towards sending Niki and the girls to America. Now the family have been presented with a cheque for £775 from Cohen's Chemist in Guiseley - made up of £425 from staff and customers and £350 match funding from the company's head office. Tyler's cause was put forward by Sue Blemings who works at the pharmacy and who has known Niki since she was a little girl.

Pharmacy Manager Katie Prior said their fundraising had started with a second hand book sale.

"The customers have been brilliant," she said. "They bought loads and were really generous. We were quite surprised by how much we have managed to raise."

Tyler was able to go to America for the proton therapy treatment after a panel of NHS experts approved the £100,000 cost after studying details of his condition.

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