THE parents of a three-year-old recently diagnosed with a rare, aggressive tumour are taking each day as it comes.

Jon Wright and wife Melanie Barker from Talgarth received the devastating news last month that their three-year-old son Drew Barker-Wright had a large mass at the bottom of his skull.

Dad Jon said: "The mass was picked up at Hereford County Hospital on October 25 and we were immediately transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

"Drew had a biopsy two days later but because of the procedures that needed to be done the lab with cultures etc, it was 10 days later that we received the news that it was a Rhabdoid tumour."

The tumour, which is extremely rare in adults, is even more rare in someone of Drew’s age, is aggressive and are often malignant. They commonly start in the kidneys, but cells from malignant Rhabdoid tumours in children can also spread to other areas of the body like the brain or lungs.

Jon, who along with wife Melanie, is staying at the hospital with Drew said: "Mel is self employed so it’s slightly easier for her to take time off work. I have a full time job but I need to be here as well, not only to support Mel but because I want to be here with Drew. He needs both our support, he’s having a pretty tough time."

It wasn’t an easy ride for the couple who tried for years before conceiving with Drew and Jon said: "It took us a long time to get pregnant, six years in fact, so he is a miracle to us. He’s our one and only, our only son and the only son we are going to have."

Drew is undergoing a prolonged session of chemotherapy to see if the treatment can reduce the size of the tumour before proceeding any further.

Jon said: "We are waiting to see how he reacts to the chemo now. He’ll have another scan in December to see if the treatments made any impact. At the moment we’re taking it sort of a day at a time because we really don’t know what the future will hold.

"It is a very aggressive nasty tumour which is known not to react to treatment and it can also spread during treatment."

After hearing the news of Drew’s diagnosis, the community of Talgarth have pulled together to raise money to enable Jon and Melanie to stay together as a family as well as exploring alternative treatments to see if they can save Drew longterm.

A Crowdfunding page has been set up and a target of £5,000 has already been passed with over 200 people donating.

To support Drew an his family visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/HELPDREW