Fundraising drive to help sick toddler meet cartoon hero

Martin Slack

A TODDLER who has an inoperable brain tumour is the focus of a huge fundraising effort which should help him meet his cartoon hero before he becomes too ill to travel.

Two-year-old McKenzie Winnard is due to start course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy next week, after specialists at Sheffield Children’s Hospital discovered his condition.

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His parents Stacey and Neil, of Cudworth, Barnsley, have been told without medical help he would survive only for weeks, but with the treatment could live another two years.

After hearing about McKenzie, people in his home village launched a fundraising drive so he can meet Mickey Mouse at Disneyland Paris.

More than 100 people, many of them complete strangers, took part in a sponsored walk last weekend with Stacey and Neil and McKenzie in his pushchair leading the way.

Organisers hope cash raised will pay for tickets for McKenzie to travel to France when he is finally discharged from Sheffield Children’s Hospital in six weeks.

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The tumour was diagnosed a month ago. Doctors initially thought a blood clot was causing the problem, but discovered the problem following an MRI scan.

Mrs Winnard said: “They can’t operate, it’s too dangerous – so chemo- and radiotherapy are the only option. If it goes well then the treatment might shrink the tumour, but they’ve told us that it’ll come back eventually.

“They’ve said that McKenzie’s got a couple of months if the treatment doesn’t work, and if it does then we might have him for a couple of years at the most. Either way we don’t know how long he’s going to survive.

“McKenzie loves Mickey Mouse, and watches his cartoons all the time, so meeting him really would be a dream come true.”

Mr Winnard, 29, an unemployed construction worker, said his son remained cheerful and added: “He’s too little to understand what’s going on – and that’s a blessing really.”