Charlie Ilsley: Boy with cancer goes to Mexico for treatment

Charlie Ilsley has travelled to Mexico for a novel immunotherapy treatment

A teenage boy with cancer has travelled to Mexico for treatment after it was withdrawn by the NHS, his mother says.

Charlie Ilsley, 13 from Reading, had been battling a third relapse in March when his oral chemotherapy was stopped.

His mother Toni Ilsley said doctors stopped the treatment due to the threat of Covid-19 weakening his immune system and his cancer showing progression.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it could not talk about individual cases.

Until March Charlie had been receiving treatment from both the NHS and a private hospital when it was stopped due to the pandemic, according to his mother.

She raised funds to take Charlie to Mexico for novel immunotherapy treatment, and said recent scans had shown his cancer had not grown in the past six months.

Mrs Ilsley said: "When you take the oral chemotherapy you are prone to infection.

"They said if he gets Covid he will then die... [but] coronavirus is not guaranteed to kill you, cancer is."

Toni Ilsley told the BBC she was upset Charlie's chemotherapy had been stopped in March

She added: "I just don't understand how they keep saying he has months to live, the first time they told me he was dying was three years ago."

Charlie had surgery to remove a brain tumour in 2015, but the cancer later returned on his spine.

She was previously been told by doctors at the John Radcliffe there was nothing they could do to stop the spread, before the same clinical team gave him the all-clear in August 2019 after he was treated in Turkey.

According to charity Cancer Research UK, hundreds of thousands of people have experienced cancellations, delays and changes to their cancer treatment.

It has urged the government to ensure patients have access to Covid-19 protected hospital facilities in advance of a resurgence of the virus in the winter.