A TEENAGER fighting brain cancer is hoping pioneering surgery in the States will make his future a healthy one.

Doctors discovered Harry Sadler, 17, had a tumour the size of a cricket ball growing in his head.

The diagnosis in May at a London hospital came after two months of agonising headaches and Colchester’s hospital allegedly failing to carry out initial scans.

Harry, a keen rapper and basketball player attending Colchester Sixth Form College, needs ‘proton beam therapy’ in Florida to ensure any remaining cancer cells are destroyed for good.

Two ops in the UK have already managed to remove most of the cancer.

His widowed mum Carol said: “Because of his age and type of cancer they were thinking of proton beam therapy.

“There is one clinic in Prague and there is one in Jacksonville, Florida.

“It is so different to traditional radiotherapy as it doesn’t damage healthy cells.”

While the NHS can fund flights to the US and the £90,000 proton treatment, the family is now struggling to make ends meet in their day-to-day lives.

Harry’s dad Ivan died after a cardiac arrest on Clacton seafront in 2014, aged 46, so the loss has added to the family’s woes and money is tight.

“I have put grieving on hold,” said Carol, who has sold her wedding ring and car.

“All I have done ever since he died is go back and forth to hospital.”

Symptoms of Harry’s illness started when he kept getting recurring headaches and his eyes were watering.

“When things weren’t clearing up we kept going back and forth to the GP.

“The headaches got worse,” said Carol.

Harry, of Colchester, had a particularly bad headache on one occasion so went to Colchester General Hospital.

He was given painkillers and diagnosed with cluster headaches.

Another visit to the hospital followed before Harry was sent to Queen’s Hospital, Romford, and a CT scan was done.

It showed a mass growing and the diagnosis was made before Harry had operations soon afterwards.

“There were key signs they [Colchester] should have picked up on. They shouldn’t have kept saying it was cluster headaches. All the alarm bells should have rung,” his mum added.

A fundraising page has been set up to support the family’s daily living expenses such as food and bills, with taxi fares coming in at £100 one way to London.

At the moment Harry’s A-Levels are on hold until he is back to health.

Harry, who has a twin Ben, and another older brother and sister, is at home and having morphine medication to help with his pain.

Carol said following advice from a cancer charity, she is set to make a formal complaint to Colchester’s hospital trust about its handling of Harry’s health concerns.

A spokesman for Colchester General Hospital said: "We are sorry and disappointed that Mrs Sadler has concerns about her son’s care when he was at Colchester General Hospital because we aim to be at our best for all patients at all times.

"However, this is the first time that we’ve been made aware of her concerns, so we would strongly encourage her to contact us as soon as possible so that we can investigate her claims and, if appropriate, apologise and make improvements for future patients.

"We would like to send our best wishes to Harry."

Harry’s fundraising page can be found at www.gofundme.com/295thck#

  • HARRY’S classmates and teachers held two fundraising concerts to support him.

William Searl, Performing Arts Faculty Team Leader at Colchester Academy, said: "Harry is a former pupil of ours, and when we heard about his illness, we thought that we should raise money to help for treatment and travel.

"We liaised with the Sixth Form College to put on two concerts - one at the Sixth Form college and one at Colchester Academy.

"We worked very closely with Performing Arts team at the sixth form college to produce some excellent performances for a good cause.

"In terms of the fundraising efforts, we have managed to raise over £500 from these two concerts. As Harry is currently a Year 12 student, it gave us an opportunity to collaborate with some students who had left Colchester Academy last year.

"These students continue to study at the Sixth Form college with Harry."

A quiz night organised by Colchester Academy also raised nearly £700.