HE is 13 years old and has a rare, inoperable brain tumour, but now a fundraising drive is being launched to put smiles back on the faces of a Bournemouth youngster and his family.

Sarah Lock, who is best friends with the boy’s mother, is calling the appeal H 4 H and is organising an event at the Fiveways pub in Charminster from 7pm on March 5.

The aim is to raise enough money to provide the young cancer victim with some treats – including a family holiday to Center Parcs, saxophone lessons, and a trip to Lapland next Christmas.

The teenager endured six weeks of intensive radiotherapy and six months of daily chemotherapy last year.

His mother has asked for her son’s name to be withheld, explaining: “We’re quite a private family. He’s 13 and it’s not cool to have cancer.

“He’s absolutely amazing. He’s had treatment that seems barbaric, but he has never moaned once. He tries to get on with his life, but it has been very hard for him.

“Two years ago, he was perfectly healthy. He was coming downstairs one morning when he collapsed and had a seizure.

“The paramedics thought he’d had a stroke and he was treated for that for about a week, then they did an MRI scan and found something on the right side of his brain.

“The scan was sent to Southampton and they diagnosed him with a low-grade glioma (a form of brain tumour).”

Despite medication, her son’s seizures were out of control by October 2009.

“He was fitting up to seven times a day. One of them lasted one and a half hours,” said his mother.

Further tests and scans revealed that he had an anaplastic astrocytoma, which shrank with last year’s treatment but cannot be removed surgically.

The boy has to wear a leg splint to help him walk and battles extreme tiredness.

“Some days he was only awake for two hours. He’s started to try his hardest to get into school every day. He tries to be as normal as possible,” said his mother.

“He’s never, ever said ‘why me?’ He thinks there’s a lot of children worse off than him.

“All we’re doing at the moment is living day to day. We just have to hope and pray for some sort of miracle.”

Sarah told the Echo: “He and his family have had a traumatic year. We wanted to do something positive, so my family and I have decided to do this.”

She is hoping that lots of people will turn up at the pub and that local businesses will donate items for a raffle and auction to be held during the evening.

• Donations can be made straight to the H 4 H fund at Nationwide, sort code 070093, account number 33333334. If you have items to raffle or auction, or would like to hold your own fundraising event, contact Debbie Lock on 07821 301346 or email d.lock20@ntlworld.com, or ring Debbie and Sarah’s mother Norah Potts on 07789 648501.