Chris Coghlan

I commend the hon. Members for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) and for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) and the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) for calling this important debate. I have seen at first hand the commitment of the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash to these issues, and I applaud his dedication. On Thursday I sat down with my constituents Jamie and Ellie Thompson. They lost their son Billy on Easter Sunday 2024, just 15 days short of his fifth birthday. It was diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, one of the rarest cancers and one of the worst. It attacks only children, it attacks the brain, and it is untreatable. Billy was the brightest, most cheerful little boy. He loved superheroes and he loved rugby, just like his dad. His mum said that everyone who met him fell in love. One day he was playing at the beach with his sister Maddie and his parents, and he was not his usual self. Five months later, he was gone. Jamie and Ellie told me how their beautiful boy became angry, anxious and in agony. They spoke of their terrible struggle to look happy in front of him, before breaking down in the room next door. One day Billy said, “Mummy, I can’t see,” as he slowly lost his eyesight and the use of his limbs. Sadly, mistakes in palliative care meant that his last days were brutal too. Today, his family are trying to make sense of it all. Jamie took out his anger on playing a season of hard rugby; Ellie threw herself into her local community projects in Billy’s memory. They both suffer from flashbacks, but thankfully Maddie is now eight and seems to be OK. Time and again, I have seen people take tragedy in their own lives to turn it to positive change for others. Jamie and Ellie have started a charity, Billy’s Battalion. They are fundraising to support five promising trials of DIPG treatment at Great Ormond Street hospital, and I ask the Secretary of State to see whether there is anything that the Government can do to support it. This is what Jamie and Ellie are doing to honour Billy’s memory, and it is people like them who inspire me the most.