Firefighters have commended eight-year-old Oliver Maw's "really brave battle" against neuroblastoma as they set off on a 204 mile run from Newcastle to Leicester.
Starting at the Great North Children's Hospital at the Royal Victoria Infirmary on Friday morning, firefighters from Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service reached the Angel of the North just after 8am, an early stop on their epic journey to the Midlands.
Simon Johnson, Natalie Mortimer, Graeme Taylor and Daryl Oguona are taking part in Run for Oliver and aim to get to Leicester on Saturday afternoon. They hope that their run will garner more donations to help Oliver get potential life-saving treatment in the United States.
Read more: Firefighters to run from Newcastle to Leicester for eight-year-old 'football-mad' cancer patient
Run for Oliver is in aid of triplet Oliver Maw of Millfield, Sunderland, who was diagnosed with a stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma in February 2021. So far, £160,000 has been raised but his family are still £100,000 short of the total needed to fund a vaccine in the United States that would lower the chances of the aggressive cancer, which is the same illness that Bradley Lowery suffered, from returning.
They are running to Leicester after being handed the baton by Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service in October 2022. Firefighters there had heard about Oliver's fundraiser and ran from their base up to Newcastle in thirty hours.
Speaking to ChronicleLive at the Angel of the North on Friday morning, Graeme Taylor, watch manager at TWFRS, said: "Oliver has fought a really brave battle so far and we're not done yet. We need to raise £260,000 to get him to America for his treatment to make sure that it doesn't reoccur."
Oliver and his triplet brothers Owen and Oscar will be waiting for the firefighters at the finish line in Leicester tomorrow. Earlier in the week, he said: "I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who is trying their best to try and get me better, I can’t wait to be able to have a proper kick about with my brothers and friends and not have to worry about my treatment.
"You are all just the best! Ha'way the lads and lasses."
If you would like to support Oliver, there are two Just Giving pages, one for the Run for Oliver (taking place on 31 March and 1 April), and the overall fundraising page Olivers Fight Against Neuroblastoma. Alternatively, people can also donate £2 by texting the word “Oliver” to 70450.
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