Laura Bagshaw A FAMILY revealed this week how they are living with a cancertime bomb as a toddler fights for his life.The mother of 22-month old Kallum Lynch knows she too will succumb to cancer at some stage, as her mother and sister did.

Laura Bagshaw

A FAMILY revealed this week how they are living with a cancer

time bomb as a toddler fights for his life.

The mother of 22-month old Kallum Lynch knows she too will succumb to cancer at some stage, as her mother and sister did.

Kallum is being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge where a tumour was removed from his spine. The operation went well but the tumour has damaged his spine; he has no movement in his legs and doctors are uncertain as to whether he will be able to walk unaided again.

Mum Joanne, 21, has been by his bedside for five weeks, watching anxiously as her son has chemotherapy for a second tumour in his chest, which, at the moment, is inoperable.

Tragically, it's not the first time Joanne has been forced to cope with family members with cancer; mum Eve died of breast cancer in 1993 and her sister Leanne died of cancer in 1986 at the age of four.

And as Joanne copes with her son battling the disease, she is all too aware she will have to face the same ordeal.

She told the Mercury: “There is history of cancer in my family. I've been told I have a cancer gene and it's likely I'll develop breast cancer by the time I'm 40. It's quite scary.”

However, she says her “brave little soldier” is

coping remarkably well, although doctors expect Kallum to be in hospital

for at least another three months.

The family's ordeal began more than two months ago when Kallum had a bacterial stomach infection. During his recovery he found it difficult to walk and doctors at first thought it was due to an irritable hip. But when Kallum was transferred to Addenbrooketo be examined for reflexology and diaphragm problems the cancer was discovered. An MRI scan revealed a tumour on his chest and on his spine.

As a thank-you for the “excellent” care Kallum is receiving, his grandfather Pat Lynch is hoping to raise more than £1,000 by holding a fundraising event next weekend.

Pat, who runs Snack Attack burger bar on South Quay, near to Great Yarmouth Stores, will donate all takings on Saturday, April 26 to Addenbrooke's.

Pat, 55, said: “Kallum is an adorable little boy and the way he is fighting is brilliant. Things are a long way off but they are doing all they can and this is our way of saying thank- you.”

Joanne added: “The staff have been very supportive; they've been brilliant, that's why we want to do fundraising.

“Doctors have saved Kallum's life twice. He has suffered fits and on one occasion 16 doctors and nurses were around his bed. If it wasn't for these people he wouldn't be alive.”

Meanwhile, Joanne has set up a web blog detailing Kallum's cancer journey.

“I wanted to raise awareness of cancer in children and this site tells the journey they go through,” she said.

To read more about Kallum's story visit www.caringbridge.org and search for Kallum Lynch.