A BOURNEMOUTH schoolboy will be one of two mascots to welcome football legend Francis Benali home as he finishes a marathon fund raising effort.

Josh Carrington will be in Southampton on Sunday as the Saints legend crosses the finishing line following a 1,400 mile trek to raise £1million for Cancer Research UK.

Saints legend Benali, known as Franny, will be welcomed to St Mary's at half time during the match with Burnley and Josh will be there to greet him.

Franny will have covered 1,400 miles in two weeks, running a marathon every day and cycling a further 75 miles between every Premier League and Championship football club.

Josh, 10, from Southbourne, and his family know just how vital research into cancer is.

He was born with a benign brain tumour and has grown up living with epileptic fits it triggers.

But days after Christmas last year, while he enjoyed a family holiday in France, he was struck by a severe headache and within just three minutes was sick and then unconscious on the ground.

His parents Laura and Mike rushed him to hospital where a scan revealed the tumour had grown and turned cancerous and was bleeding around his brain.

Josh underwent emergency surgery and was kept in a coma while he was flown home to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital on New Year’s Eve.

Josh was transferred to Southampton General Hospital where he became a known face on the Piam Brown ward and received radiotherapy and chemotherapy to try and shrink the tumour.

But at the end of July this year the family received the news they didn’t want to hear – it had not worked.

Josh is now part of a clinical trial which is testing if the drug dabrafenib (Tafinlar) can be used to treat children and teenagers with brain tumours or other solid tumours that have a faulty BRAF gene. The drug is already used to treat advanced skin cancer.

The youngster is enjoying being back at school near his home in Southbourne, Bournemouth, where he lives with his mum and dad and sister Aimee, six.

Laura said: “Since he has started this trial Josh has been putting on weight and been back to his usual, cheeky self. After he was so sick during the chemotherapy it has been nice to have him back.”

Speaking about Franny’s challenge to help fund the work Cancer Research UK does, Josh said: “I think he’s a superhero because he has done all of this for cancer research. What he is doing will help to save other children and people who are poorly like me.”