A COURAGEOUS schoolboy who is battling cancer for the second time has been nominated for an award.

Twelve-year-old Seb Murphy, from Guiseley, has already fought leukaemia once after being diagnosed at the age of three. But he is fighting the disease again after it returned just over a year ago.

Seb's courage and perseverance have impressed all those who know him and he has now been nominated for the Young Achiever category of the Yorkshire Choice Awards.

Family friend Ruth Owen put his name forward and is trying to get as many votes for him as possible.

She said: "He is an incredible young person who has gone through more in the last twelve months than anyone could begin to imagine. He, and his family, are hugely inspirational."

Seb, who has a nine-year-old brother James, and a six-year-old sister Lexie, was originally diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in April 2010 at the age of three, and underwent three and a half years of chemotherapy treatment.

His mum Helen said: "After that he was in full remission and was really thriving and enjoying life. At the age of 11 and over four years after finishing treatment, Seb was in his last year of primary school, at Tranmere Park Primary School in Guiseley, and looking forward to starting high school. He enjoyed playing football for the Guiseley Greens and to look at him, no one would have ever guessed he was a cancer survivor. We all thought that that chapter of his life was over.

"Then just before Christmas 2017, Seb started to complain of bad leg pain and began to limp. Blood tests delivered the devastating news that no one was expecting. The leukaemia had returned. For relapsed disease, the treatment options are more limited and the prognosis is not as good. This time nothing seemed to go to plan and Seb failed to respond to chemotherapy. He began some innovative immunotherapy treatment in February 2017 which, thankfully, was successful in getting him into remission. We were told that a bone marrow transplant was Seb’s best chance of a long term cure. Sadly, no family member was a match. A German donor was found via the DKMS register. Seb had high dose chemotherapy and full body radiotherapy to prepare him for the bone marrow transplant.

"A bone marrow transplant is high risk procedure and it is a long road to recovery. Seb’s transplant has not been 100 per cent successful and he is having to have further top ups of cells kindly donated by his donor. Seb’s immune system still has not recovered to a level which is safe enough for him to return to school or socialise in busy places. He has missed out on so much that healthy children simply take for granted."

Writing on facebook, on behalf of herself and Seb's dad Ben, Helen appealed to people to vote for their son in the awards.

She said: "As many of you know, our eldest son, Sebastian, has since Christmas 2017 been battling cancer for the second time. In the last 14 months he’s spent over 160 nights in hospital, much of that in isolation not even able to see his brother and sister. He has undergone high dose chemotherapy, immunotherapy, full body radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. He has bravely suffered the horrendous side effects of the brutal treatment (chronic sickness, hair loss, ulcers, anaemia, mobility problems, infections) and if he is lucky enough to be cured he will have to live with the long term after effects of the treatment for the rest of his life."

She added: "Throughout his ordeal, Seb has dealt with everything with courage and quiet determination. We are so proud of him and he is an inspiration to many."

Visit www.yorkshirechoiceawards.co.uk/voteforme to vote for Seb.Voting closes at the end of February.