Huge turnout for terminally ill boy's lemonade

Thomas dreamed of having his own lemonade stand

A nine-year-old boy with terminal cancer whose dream was to set up a lemonade stand found himself in major demand as a queue of customers stretched around the block.

Thomas, from Bournemouth, wanted to start up the venture after learning online about other children doing similar things.

His mum Louise put a post on a local Facebook group and was "overwhelmed by the support".

She said: "I thought I’d get some people on the school run or dog walkers, just a few, but the response was manic, it was crazy."

Hundreds of thirsty customers flocked to the stand, with the road eventually blocked by traffic.

"It’s just so lovely that all these people took time out of their day to come and make his dream come true. I couldn’t believe it," Louise said.

"Then someone came as Spider-Man from a local company where they dress up in character, and they were helping with the traffic."

Thomas was "really pleased" that Spider-Man paid a visit to his lemonade stand

Thomas, who is undergoing life-prolonging treatment for a brain tumour known as a diffuse midline glioma, found the whole experience "absolutely amazing", his mum added.

"He gets quite tired now so I don’t even know how he got through it.

"I think he was just so happy, he just got into it, he was buzzing, he was chatting to everyone," she said.

"His speech has been affected by the tumour so he doesn’t talk a lot anymore, but everyone was saying thank you for the lemonade and he was saying ‘you’re welcome’. It was really cute."

She added: "We were just out in town and someone recognised him from the lemonade stand so he thinks he’s famous now."

A friend of the family set up a fundraiser so Thomas could fulfil one of his other dreams, which was to go on a Disney holiday.

More than £30,000 has been raised but Thomas has since become too ill to travel the long distance so the family are planning local treats instead, such as a trip to a theme park.

But Louise said the day was a reminder of "great community spirit", and that there was "good out there".

"Everyone wanted to be a part of it and make his dream come true," she said.