The mother of a Hornchurch boy who lost his battle against neuroblastoma is setting up a charity to stop parents of children with the disease getting into debt.
Kristel Huth, 35 whose son Mitchell died from cancer wants to offer financial support to the parents of children undergoing treatment for neuroblastoma.
She said: “A lot of families struggle when their child has neuroblastoma.
“They want to spend all the time with their children, but they have to work and it leads to a lot of them falling behind in payments for their mortgage and eventually being thrown out of their homes.”
The charity, which will be called the Mitchell Huth Memorial Fund, will give parents the funds they need to take time off of work to spend with their children while they are undergoing treatment, without them worrying that they are going to fall behind in their bills.
Kristel says that the charity will also help the parents to buy things for their children.
She said: “When your child is dying you want to be able to spoil them, so if your child wants a new game you should be able to just buy it for them without worrying that you can’t afford it.
“It’s a terrible feeling, because you know that your child is dying and you just want to make their last days happy.”
Mitchell lost his battle against neuroblastoma in August aged seven after a two battle with the disease.
His death came just a month after he had returned from Mexico for treatment after his family and friends raised more than �150,000 for potentially life saving experimental photodynamic therapy treatment.
Kristel says that over the two year period her husband, Terry lost his job and the family were almost forced out of their home.
She said: “We were really lucky, because if it wasn’t for our family and friends we would have been living on the streets.
“My husband lost his business because all he wanted to do was to spend time with Mitchell.”
She added: “The only thing we were thinking about was getting the money needed for his treatment, so it meant that if he wanted a new toy we had to rely on our family to buy it for him.”
A number of events have been organised to raise money for the charity.
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