Campaign to raise £300k for Hassocks cancer warrior Teddy's treatment hits £150k

In mid-February, the parents of four-year-old Teddy from West Sussex launched an urgent appeal to give their son the best chance of beating the childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. Since then family, friends and complete strangers have worked tirelessly to raise funds for the tot, who has captured the hearts of his local community.

His campaign has now hit £150,000 following a hugely successful online auction which raised £9,938. The family have until the end of the year to raise the remaining £150,000 to ensure Teddy can access groundbreaking maintenance treatment in the US when his NHS treatment finishes.

“We have been completely blown away by the response to our campaign” says Teddy’s mum, Kat Lichten. “When we set out to raise up to £300,000 it seemed an impossible task, but I really believe we can do it now.”

Teddy is a four-year-old from Hassocks in West Sussex who is obsessed with trains. He loves riding trains, going to the station to see the trains, playing with his train set, and watching Thomas and Friends. His love of trains is matched only by his appetite for pizza!

In July, 2022, Teddy was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. At diagnosis, Teddy’s cancer had already metastasized in nearly every area of his body, and had taken over 60% of his bone marrow.

Since then, Teddy has had six gruelling rounds of induction chemotherapy, multiple admissions to his local hospital for fevers, a stem cell harvest, two rounds of high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, and 20 sessions of radiotherapy. He has recently begun 6 months of immunotherapy before he finally finishes frontline treatment at the end of 2023.

Teddy's future is uncertain, as high-risk neuroblastoma is a particularly aggressive and complex cancer to treat. Sadly the disease returns in almost 50% of children, sometimes months or years into remission, and if this happens less than one in ten will survive.

Teddy’s mum and dad Kat and Alastair have teamed up with the charity, Solving Kids’ Cancer, a specialist neuroblastoma charity, to help them raise the funds and access a potentially life-saving cancer vaccine in New York, which aims to prevent the cancer from returning. This would cost up to £300,000 and would involve 8 trips to the US over 3 years.

Teddy’s family still have a long way to go in order for them to hit their target by the time Teddy finishes treatment, and they are calling on the public to rally round them in their quest to save their son’s life

You can support Teddy’s campaign by donating at https://www.solvingkidscancer.org.uk/children/teddylichten/ or by texting ‘TEDDYL’ to 70085 followed by any whole amount up to £20. Supporters can also take on a sponsored challenge, organise an event or hold a charity stall in his name.