THE mother of a local five-year-old boy who is battling cancer said she can "never thank everyone enough" for their support after a fundraiser helped her prioritise her son over paying the bills.

On November 4, 2022, Wilfred (Wilf) Salter from Weymouth, woke up unable to walk and with a "wobbly feeling" in his legs.

He was taken to Dorset County Hospital for an MRI scan to try and find the cause.

His parents Lucy and Will were then given the "horrible" news that young Wilf had cancer - a tumour on his spine.

Wilf and his parents were rushed to Southampton General Hospital where more scans revealed the cancer had spread across his body; into his spine, his hips, his bone marrow as well as several tumours around his stomach.

Wilf was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer which affects young children and his parents were told he had a 50-50 chance of survival.

Just over two years later, Wilf has started Year 1 at his school, lives at home full-time and no longer needs to visit the hospital for treatment.

Dorset Echo: Young Wilf Salter is now back at school and was recently awarded Star MathematicianYoung Wilf Salter is now back at school and was recently awarded Star Mathematician (Image: Lucy Hutchinson)

His mother Lucy Hutchinson, 37, said Wilf still has a small hotspot in his chest but the cancer is no longer present in the rest of his body.

Lucy said: “His immunotherapy is in its last couple of stages.

“He has a little hotspot in his tumour still but it has been stable for eight months so for now they have removed all his tubes and lines so we just have to see how it goes.

“He has hearing aids now because the chemotherapy damaged his hearing a bit, but he is really happy.

Dorset Echo: Wilf Salter and his mother Lucy on Weymouth BeachWilf Salter and his mother Lucy on Weymouth Beach (Image: Lucy Hutchinson)

“He has done very well compared to our expectations and he doesn’t even remember a lot of it now.

“I just hope it's enough and he doesn’t end up back in hospital too soon.

“He is back in school in September, he started off part-time and then very quickly refused to be picked up at lunchtime, he loves it."

The original story, previously published in The Echo also led Lucy's old mortgage advisor to get in contact with her.

After reading the story, he contacted Lucy to inform her about money which she could claim on a life insurance policy which he helped set up for them.

“My mortgage advisor saw the story in the Dorset Echo. I had got my mortgage from him five years prior, he wasn’t someone I spoke to often", Lucy said.

“He rang me up and said, 'I’ve seen in the paper, I am sorry to hear about that, but did you know part of the life insurance you’d been set up for could help with a critically ill child?'

“That was wonderful, it helped us pay off a bit of the mortgage and all of the other bills that needed.

“He saw the story in the paper, recognised us and went back through his papers, he did everything for us, he was amazing.

“I don’t know what we would have done without that."

A fundraiser which was started on GoFundMe by Lucy's family was set up in the hope of raising £5,000 to help Lucy and Will not have to worry about bills whilst they looked after Wilf.

The page managed to raise over £21,000, which allowed Lucy to take a step back from her job as a self-employed personal trainer to stay with her son in the hospital.

Dorset Echo: Five-year-old Wilf Salter celebrating completing a round of treatment at hospitalFive-year-old Wilf Salter celebrating completing a round of treatment at hospital (Image: Will Salter)

She added: “The GoFundMe was amazing, we could not have survived without that, I can never thank everyone enough.

“It allowed us to be with him and our other children. The support at the hospital has been great, and the support nurses are amazing.

“There are still local businesses fundraising for him, he is trying to save up for a holiday at Center Parcs so a lot of people are trying to help get us there."