Boy's heartbreaking words to mum - now he's cancer free and back at school

Harley Race did not know if he would live to see his 14th birthday when his returned.

But the teenager is now -free and celebrating that milestone, having recently returned to school full-time for the first time in more than four years.

Harley, who was diagnosed aged eight, is a healthy, easy-going boy who loves skateboarding and computer games. He is also a doting big brother to his seven-month-old sister Eleicia.

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Harley’s mum Rachael, 37, said: “Harley wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the incredible doctors and nurses.

“When you’ve been through so much, it’s all about making happy memories. We are taking him to an indoor skate park for his birthday.”

Four years ago, Harley spent his 10th birthday in an isolation room at Great Ormond Street Hospital after receiving
a lifesaving stem cell transplant.

Harley, who got chemotherapy and radiotherapy, spent three months in hospital before making it home to Shoeburyness on the Essex coast just in time for .

Rachael, a qualified teacher and yoga instructor, gave up work to care for him. She said: “Harley was so strong. I didn’t know he could be that resilient. There was only one day when he said, ‘Mummy, I don’t want to be here anymore’. His birthday was the first day he began to feel better. The nurses came in at midnight with a birthday banner.”

He was diagnosed with blood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukaemia after feeling tired and getting stomach pains. Harley needed a blood transfusion and got chemotherapy to stop the cancer. But it returned a year later and his only hope was a stem cell transplant.

Rachael said: “I appreciate his donor and the team at GOSH so much for saving my son’s life.”

She and Harley are supporting an appeal to raise £300million to help build a new Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH. It will deliver state-of-the-art care for rare childhood cancers. The site will also include a new hospital school and outdoor spaces.

• For more information about the appeal, visit