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TED'S STORY

A photo of Little Ted.A photo of Little Ted.Photo of Baby Ted.Photo of Baby Ted.A photo of Little Ted.A photo of Little Ted.A photo of Little Ted.A photo of Little Ted.

Edward 'Ted' Oliver Neal.

Ted was born in December 2020, amid a global pandemic. He was pure sunshine at what was a scary and uncertain time for the world. He was always happy and so content, with his bright blue eyes and mop of golden hair - he stole the heart of everybody who met him.

Shock cancer diagnosis.

When Ted was 8 months old, he was diagnosed with an incredibly rare and aggressive type of cancer, called Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma, in his sinus, which we'd spotted as his right eye had started to bulge slightly. We took him to hospital, expecting to be told he had something in his eye. Instead, what we were to find out over those next few days was every parent's worst nightmare.

Battling through treatment.

In August 2021, Ted began a gruelling treatment plan at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre. He battled through 6 cycles of chemotherapy before his tumour had shrunk enough to operate. An 11-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital removed the majority of the tumour and after his surgery, Ted was set to receive another 8 cycles of chemotherapy before a decision was made on the next steps for his treatment.

Devastating news.

Sadly, despite Ted recovering like an absolute superstar from surgery, and waltzing his way through the next 5 cycles of chemotherapy, he didn't get to the end of this treatment plan. In March 2022 scans showed that the cancer had metastasized very quickly to his brain and spinal cord. We were given the devastating news on 25th March 2022 that Ted's cancer was incurable. Our beautiful, brave, baby boy passed away just 15 days later on 9th April 2022, aged 16 months.

Ted's Legacy lives on.

We had been raising money for a pioneering treatment called AMORE in the Netherlands, but as we would no longer be using the money for that, we wanted to instead use it to give something back and help other families like ours, and so The Little Ted Foundation was born.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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