THE plight of John Mark Riding has touched the whole of East Lancashire. Stricken with a brain tumour at the age of five and initially given three months to live, the former Darwen youngster has been undergoing radiotherapy in Bristol.

DAVID HIGGERSON spoke to his family to find out about the pressures of dealing with the illness and to doctors to see what they are doing to try and help John Mark.

LOOKING at little John Mark Riding playing on his games console, it is hard to imagine he is anything other than a happy five-year-old enjoying Christmas.

He chuckles as he beats the 'baddies' in Super Mario and playfully hits his mum when she tries to attract his attention.

But, tragically, his parents have been told he only has months to live after a brain tumour developed earlier this year.

That there is no guaranteed cure for the tumour, which has developed on one of the most sensitive parts of the brain. All doctors can do is try and freeze its growth to give John Mark precious extra months with his family.

He has just spent six weeks living with his mother and father at CLIC House, (Cancer and Leukaemia in Children) run by a charity which supports families of children with cancers. They have lived there while he undergoes radiotherapy treatment in Bristol.

John Mark used to live with his mother Jacqueline Sanderson before they moved to Cornwall three years ago. His dad, also called John, still lives in Blackburn.

John said: "It is every parent's worst nightmare. It is something you never imagine happening and now it is a case of making all the time we have with him count.

"His mum rang me one day to say that he was having trouble walking. She took him to the doctor who said he had an ear infection. It didn't get any better so she decided to take him to the hospital.

"I spoke to her later and they had decided to keep John Mark in. I went down there like a shot.

"They carried out a scan and found a shadow. They told us there was nothing they could do to cure it.

"It is the worst thing any parent could hear."

Jacqueline added: "They looked at him and then just told us there was nothing they could do and he had three months to live."

The radiotherapy treatment could give John Mark an extra six months to live.

Within days of finding out what was wrong with John Mark, his parents also learnt of possible treatments in America which could help him.

Fund-raising started to help get John Mark out to the States, but John said: "The doctors here were very concerned about the treatment and the effects it could have. They may not have helped at all.

"We decided to go for the radiotherapy treatment in the end because it was the most likely to help."

Every time John Mark goes to the hospital, he is fitted with a mask with protects his face from the radiation used to attack the tumour. He has also been taking steroids to help him fight on.

f-zf+zThe side effect of the steroids was that his face got chubbier which made the mask a tighter fit. It got to the point where he would not go into surgery.

"When they altered the mask, John Mark was really happy. The doctors say he is the best little lad they have ever dealt with. Most of the time, he goes in, lies on the table for 10 minutes while he the treatment and just gets on with it.

"It is very, very hard for us."

The treatment finished on Monday, enabling John Mark to travel back home for Christmas. Dad John joined them - knowing it could well be John Mark's last Christmas.

He said: "It was recently his birthday too. We made it extra special, you have too."

It will take a month to see how well the treatment has worked. Doctors will then decide if starting a course of chemotherapy will help.

John said: "He does seem a lot better. He still has mood swings, but that is to be expected. His face had gone lopsided because of the tumour, but it has corrected itself now.

"We just have to monitor him and see how he goes. All we can do is hope."

The £3,000 which has been raised in Lancashire, along with £3,000 in Cornwall will now be given to the CLIC charity.

As well as supporting families, they also fund research into cures for child cancers.

The only way of knowing if the tumour has frozen is to carry out a biopsy on it - something doctors won't do because disturbing it could lead to it spreading faster. It could start growing any day - doctors say he has just a five per cent chance of getting over it.

Prof Michael Stevens has worked closely with the family and is CLIC's professor of paediatric oncology, based in Bristol.

He said: "The condition John Mark has is very rare but we deal with it on a day to day basis here.

"The treatments in America involved concentrated doses of chemotherapy drugs which can work on other cancers but aren't proven for this. Nothing is.

"Nobody knows how children come to get tumours like this.

"There is no convincing evidence the treatment in America would work, or whether any chemotherapy would. We have to wait and see how John Mark does

"It is very hard for families."