Jude Anderton was 11 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. He went from a happy, highly active boy to being desperately ill in such a short space of time.

One day, he came home from school and said he hadn’t thrown the ball well that day and couldn’t understand why. He also said his arm was feeling achy.

A week later, the pain very quickly became excruciating with swelling in his arm. He stopped eating and couldn’t sleep so he was sent for an X-ray, CT scan, MRI, and biopsy. After those tests, it was confirmed, Jude had cancer that had already spread to his lungs.

The treatment was horrific. Jude quickly lost his hair. The inside of his mouth and tongue were covered with blisters and he had to have IV morphine for the pain. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t eat, and had to have an Ng tube to feed.

He had surgery on his arm which took seven hours and they removed the tumour and managed to save his arm. He really took to the physio and even started talking about the Paralympics.

But Jude’s arm pain returned and his arm and hand started to swell. He went for another scan and it was all back. The cancer had grown in his arm and his lungs. It was then that his family were told that they wouldn’t be able to cure Jude.

Jude was taken home with the support of the Macmillan team. The tumour on his arm was just huge. His mum, who is a nurse, said she’d never seen anything like it. It was as if it was taking over his body. He had two syringe drivers for pain relief and was on oxygen because his pain was so severe.

Jude died, aged 12, at home with his family on 28th February 2018.