THE family of a three-year-old boy diagnosed with an aggressive cancer has launched an appeal to pay for vital lifesaving treatments.

Joseph Yeandle was diagnosed in April with stage 4 neuroblastoma – a very rare but aggressive childhood cancer with just a 50 per cent chance of survival.

Joseph, from Brynamman, began to develop a poor appetite and weight loss in February of this year but with no signs of illness. However, It was just before Easter when his health declined rapidly when he “turned grey and was crying in pain”. Following tests at Glangwili hospital, Carmarthen, doctors spotted a lump in his neck and discovered he had a low blood platelet count.

Joseph was transferred to Noah’s Ark Children’s hospital in Cardiff where further tests revealed his diagnosis. The cancer is in his adrenal glands, stomach, lymphatic system, brain and bone marrow.

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The superhero-loving three-year-old described as the "kindest, funniest and most loving boy" is now undergoing chemotherapy to reduce the main tumour so surgeons can operate and remove it.

He will then have his stem cells harvested and returned to him once he has completed his high dose chemotherapy and then undergo radiotherapy, followed by immunotherapy.

Joseph’s mum, Katy said: “Finding out Joseph’s diagnosis was the hardest moment of our lives. Hearing that your child has an aggressive cancer with a poor survival rate, is a feeling that can’t be described and a feeling that I wish no other family must endure.

“On top of the chemo and due to the low blood levels, the injections give him horrendous bruises and lumps, but Joseph won’t let this stop him. I dread to think of the pain he is in, but Joseph keeps on playing and smiling, he will not let anything defeat him.

“Joseph’s strength and bravery is what’s getting us through each day. What he’s had to endure already has been utterly horrific, but Joseph is amazing and has never lost his spirit.”

With Joseph receiving hospital treatment he is having to spend a lot of time away from his family, including his six-year-old brother Liam, and Covid restrictions make the ordeal even worse.

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Katy said: “It has been the most difficult time of our lives and the Covid restrictions makes it even harder. Being apart from the family is particularly hard on us all.

“We were initially in hospital for six weeks without going home and Joseph couldn’t understand where everyone had gone, why couldn’t his brother, grandparents, cousins, aunties and uncles come to visit him? To a three-year-old, he must have felt that everyone abandoned him, you can’t explain covid restrictions with reason to a three-year-old.”

Katy added: “Only one parent is allowed in hospital at a time, but I have to be thankful that at least we are allowed to swap between me and my husband as some hospital wards will only allow one parent with no swaps at all.

“But as his mother, I couldn’t possibly make that journey back down the M4 without him, so every day when my husband would swap so that he could see Joseph, I would have to leave and look for somewhere to go. More often than not I just sit or walk around Cardiff until it's time to go back in to Joseph.”

Following his frontline treatment Joseph will have regular CT scans, ultrasounds, radioactive scans, MRI scans, anaesthetic, injections, transfusions, oxygen, feeding tubes and bone marrow biopsies.

The hope is to get Joseph into remission, but the battle doesn’t stop there. With Neuroblastoma 60 per cent of children relapse, and with Joseph’s stage 4 high risk classification the percentage of him getting backing into remission is only five per cent.

It is for this reason the family are fundraising for further treatment after his frontline treatment finishes in 2022.

Katy explains: “We are hoping to get Joseph onto a trial for a cancer vaccine in New York. This vaccine has been designed to make Joseph’s body gain immunity against the Neuroblastoma cells so that it significantly reduces the chances of him relapsing.

“This is why we are desperately raising money so that we have the funds ready for when Joseph needs it.”

To donate to their GoFundMe page visit uk.gofundme.com/f/help-joseph-hulk-smash-cancer.

The family have also set up a Facebook page called 'Help Joseph 'Hulk Smash' Cancer’.