Dream holiday ‘best medicine’ for young brain tumour patient Blaise Etheridge-Clarke

Four-year-old Blaise Etheridge-Clarke and his family thought his dreams of visiting Disneyland in Florida had been shattered when they discovered they were not able to get medical insurance for him.

Although they were given a doctor’s letter stating that he was fit to fly, insurers considered Blaise too risky.

However, his holiday hopes kept his spirits up while he underwent gruelling surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments, leading his family, from Rawcliffe, York, to decide to take the risk and go without insurance.

Theresa, Blaise’s mother, said: “It was a dream and made happy memories for him and for us as a family. It was just amazing.

“He was absolutely fine – that was our main worry. He took it really well and he loved seeing Mickey.

“He was so happy because he did not have to go into hospital for the whole time.” The trip was made possible after supporters from around York raised £14,000 for the trip when they heard of Blaise’s plight.

Because the brain tumour had come back a second time, insurers told the family they would be unable to cover Blaise to travel to Florida.

Theresa said: “We did not know what to do. We thought about: ‘What if we wait six months and he is not with us?’ “We thought long and hard and decided to take the risk and go without insurance because we don’t know how much longer we have and we wanted to give him his dream holiday and put to good use all the money everyone so kindly raised.

“We would like to thank each and every person that helped to make the trip possible – it really was amazing and was the best medicine for him.”

As well as Blaise’s parents, Theresa and Tony, his six-year-old brother Christian and two-year-old brothers Zach and Jerome also went on the trip. They rented a villa and Blaise learned how to swim, Theresa said. The youngster would find out if he needed any further treatment when he had an MRI scan next month.