Family vows to raise funds to help cancer tot

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• Family vows to raise funds to help cancer tot

  The family of a toddler from East Lothian have vowed to raise more than £100,000 to take him to the USA for groundbreaking cancer surgery.
  
  Ross Anderton from Ormiston has Orbital Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the muscle tissue which causes his eye to swell dramatically.
  
  The 22-month-old's tumour has been reduced with chemotherapy but could return without treatment to completely destroy the cancer.
  
  However, the next stage of treatment is radiation therapy, which doctors warn could leave him badly disfigured.
  
  The hugely punishing treatment could destroy healthy cells in Ross's face, meaning the affected area would be unlikely to grow in the future. He would have to wait until he was much older before undergoing a number of cosmetic procedures and his family say that could be devastating.
  
  The other alternative is 'Proton Beam Therapy', which is hugely expensive and is currently unavailable on the NHS.
  
  If NHS chiefs fail to approve funding for the alternative procedure, his family say they would have to find the cash to take him to the USA themselves to avoid putting him through traditional treatment.
  
  Ross's Mum, Lesley Anderton said: "We know what the side effects are for radiotherapy and I couldn't do that to my son. I wouldn't have him, at 14 years old, coming home from school having been bullied and saying to me, 'Mummy, why did you do this to me?'
  
  "We know full well there's an alternative treatment out there that would do the same job in getting rid of the cancer but minimising the side effects."
  
  However, the treatment could cost in excess of £100,000 and the family would have to stay in the states for at least two months.
  
  Ross's Dad Andrew said he would do whatever it took to raise funds and said the family planned to remortgage their house.
  
  He said: "Even if we get funded, the NHS would only pay for so much, maybe one escort and Ross. But obviously we don't want to split the family up. Katie, our daughter's just three and we need to keep the family together because it's obviously a tough time as it is.
  
  "The only thing that'll stop us is if the Proton Beam centre say 'no, we can't do it'. Or 'we won't do it'. That's the bottom line.
  
  "It's a lot of money, but Ross's life's worth a lot more."
  
  The Andertons have already raised more than £3,000 and a number of fundraising events are planned for December.
  
  The Haddington Pipe Band has agreed to take part in a fancy dress sponsored walk along with volunteers in a bid to raise extra cash for the appeal while raffle tickets are being sold for a draw to take place at a fundraising party night.
  
  A website has also been set up in Ross's name in a bid to spread the word about the appeal, and Andrew says people have already shown their generosity.
  
  He said: "It's quite surprising, I've never known anything like it. I didn't know people would be as kind and as responsive as they have been. It's really, really good."
  

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