Dear All,

Welcome to this webpage in memory of our angel, Joel. The most heroic little boy we have ever known.

Our gorgeous 2 year old son was diagnosed with an Atypical Teratoid/ Rhabdoid Tumour, AT/RT, on his spine on 10th July 2014. This resulted in compression on his spinal cord causing loss of sensation and movement from his waist down. After an amazing life-saving operation, the tumour was removed. The Rhabdoid tumour is a very rare, fast-growing, aggressive, malignant tumour and so treatment needed to be started straight away. Joel needed to have 9 sessions of intensive chemotherapy, one every 2 weeks, and 6 weeks of radiotherapy under general anaesthetic, Monday to Friday.

On the eighth cycle of chemotherapy Joel developed a serious lung condition and was rushed to intensive care where he was put on a ventilator for nearly two weeks. He slowly recovered and finally came home on December 13th following a clear result from the MRI scan. We all had a wonderful Christmas and Joel was doing really well. He had worked so hard to regain some of the movement in his lower body and had started to crawl again, as well as standing and taking a few steps.

Then in mid-January Joel started to deteriorate rapidly and on January 23rd Joel had to have an emergency MRI scan which revealed 2 more tumours had grown on his spine. Sadly, Joel had lost his battle and passed away on Sunday 25th January at home.

Joel brought so much brightness and joy to us all in his short life. A child, unlike any other, whose smile would light up the room and melt the heart of anyone who saw him. He was intelligent beyond his years, had an intensely caring nature and whose last wish was for those he loved to "Be Happy".

One day a child will recover from this awful disease, sadly for us, that was not our Joel. We have decided to try to bring some hope to those children and families who find themselves going through the same ordeal. The money we raise will be going to support research and clinical trials for Spinal AT/RTs as there are currently none to support this rare type of childhood cancer.

Through Just Giving, you can sponsor Joel's fund and donations will be quickly processed and passed to the CCLG Special Named Fund. CCLG is a not for profit organisation and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. We really appreciate all your support and thank you for any donations. It means so much to us and our family that together we can help to find more ways to beat this disease.

Please give generously.

With love to you all,

The Prince family

xxxx

For more information on fundraising please visit the Joel Prince website, main fundraising page or find us on Facebook.