Campaign to help boy, four, access lifesaving cancer treatment passes £150,000

Teddy Lichten has neuroblastoma and needs to raise £300,000 to access the treatment in New York by the end of 2023.

A campaign to help raise £300,000 for a potentially life-saving treatment for Teddy Lichten, four, has reached the halfway point (Kat Lichten/PA)

The parents of a four-year-old with an “aggressive” form of cancer have said fundraising for his potentially lifesaving treatment no longer feels “impossible” after they reached the £150,000 halfway point of their campaign in five months.

Teddy Lichten was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma in July 2022, which develops from specialised nerve cells and means there is just a 40% chance he will reach his eighth birthday.

In mid-February his parents launched a fundraising campaign which has garnered attention and fundraising action from people within their community of Hassocks, West Sussex, and further afield.

The family’s £300,000 target is required for treatment offered in the US which is unavailable in the UK, and his parents say it needs to be reached before the end of 2023 when Teddy finishes frontline treatment with the NHS.

Speaking about reaching the halfway point, Teddy’s mother, Kat Lichten, 34, a marketing professional, told the PA news agency: “When we set out to raise up to £300,000 it seemed an impossible task, but I really believe we can do it now.

“It’s been a long slog to £150,000 and it’s been incredible to see all the support we’ve had from the community, strangers up and down the county and even abroad as well.

“All my friends were constantly going and checking, so it was one of my friends that texted me and said, ‘We hit 150k’.”

She said people in the local community have taken on family fun days, quiz nights and some have even done a 100km bike ride, which she said has been “insane”.

Mrs Lichten said that trying to raise such a large sum of money has been a “huge burden”.

“When your child is diagnosed and you hear that they’ve got a 40% chance of survival, you want to do absolutely anything in your power to better that,” she said.

“We’re in the most stressful period of our lives trying to care for an extremely sick child and we’ve also got a 17-month-old as well, and we’ve also been spearheading a £300,000 fundraising campaign at the same time.”

She said Teddy is aware that he is “poorly” and the family has “pointed out posters” with his face on them to promote the campaign, but that he has found solace in playing with trains, which are his “obsession”.

“He loves singing the theme tune of Thomas The Tank Engine and will spend hours playing out little scenarios with the trains,” she said.

Mrs Lichten said that when she found out Teddy had cancer it felt “like our whole world imploding”.

“We were scared and confused, and I was angry at the world for making this his fate.”

She added that the treatment protocol for the condition has been “very, very aggressive”.

“Teddy immediately started a four-month regime of chemotherapy, where he was hooked up to chemotherapy drugs for 24 hours a day for seven to 10 days at a time in hospital,” she said.

“His immune system would completely go to pieces each time and he would end up with sepsis and then we’d come back out from hospital just in time to go back in again for him to have his next round.”

She added that he has also had two stem cell transplants and spent last Christmas Eve in intensive care after his first one.

“I actually ended up missing our youngest son’s first Christmas because I was in hospital with Teddy,” Mrs Lichten said.

If the target is reached, Teddy will be steps closer to accessing a potentially “life-saving” treatment in New York, which “teaches the body to do the work of immunotherapy on its own” and is in the trial stage.

“It’s a cancer vaccine and it’s only available at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York,” she said.

“Immunotherapy is very effective for neuroblastoma, but it’s only active in the body when it’s being given, so you can give it and then 72 hours after you stop giving it, it’s completely out of the system.”

The £300,000 target would pay for the family to take eight trips to America over three years.

Mrs Lichten said she and her family are working with neuroblastoma charity Solving Kids’ Cancer, who have a campaign running which has called on the Government to look into funding and push for European trials of the drug.

“It can’t be available on the NHS until there has been a randomised phase three trial here in the UK,” she added.

“But that would take about 10 years and about £15 million of investment, so it’s not anywhere near starting.”

She added that the disease returns in almost 50% of children – sometimes months or years into remission – and if this happens, fewer than than one in 10 sufferers will survive.

The fundraising link can be accessed here: https://www.solvingkidscancer.org.uk/children/teddylichten/

People can also donate by texting TEDDYL followed by any amount up to £20 to 70085.