Courageous youngster Oliver Headon is to appear on a television advert with Nelson Mandela.

Chelmsford youngster Oliver, four, is making good progress in his battle against cancer and has now been asked to star in the commercial for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

The advert will be broadcast throughout March and features footage of Oliver when he appeared on popular breakfast show GMTV before Christmas.

Film clips of former South African president Mr Mandela and the late Mother Teresa, both cancer-sufferers themselves, will also be shown in the ad.

Mum Dawn said Oliver - whose hair has now grown back since he finished his chemotherapy - was looking forward to seeing himself on the small screen again. She said: "He's a star in his own right."

The Headon family had more good news about Oliver's illness after a visit to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital on Thursday.

Doctors had been worried about an x-ray which had shown something in Oliver's chest.

Mrs Headon said: "He's doing well. He's had two x-rays and they've both come up clear. They're pretty sure that it's nothing nasty. We're going back to St John's Hospital in Chelmsford next month."

She added: "They have to keep an eye on him every month and make sure that it doesn't come back. I think this will happen for at least a year.

"It's good news but we don't know what's round the corner and we're taking things a day at a time."

Last month, we reported Oliver had gone back to school at St Anne's Prep School in New London Road.

"He's settling in at school. He's going in every morning," said Mrs Headon.

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