PARENTS of Dilton Marsh’s Alexander Vinson face an anxious two-month wait to find out whether proton beam therapy treatment on his brain tumour has worked as they settle back into family life at home.

This week, Alexander’s mum Raluca, 35, and dad Philip thanked the thousands of people who donated more than £150,000 towards the trip after he was turned down by the NHS, with support from charity Kids ‘n’ Cancer and the Wiltshire Times.

“We won’t know how the treatment worked or if anything else has changed until we have another MRI scan and we have to wait two or three months. Apparently too much radiation can cause part of the brain to swell up,” she said.

“We appreciate everyone’s help and we are in debt to them. I hope that Alexander will be well and later on realise what people have done for him and we will make sure we tell him.”

Alexander received daily treatment at the ProCure Proton Beam Therapy Centre in Oklahoma and Mrs Vinson said the support the family received from the nurses and Dr Andrew Chang, medical director of the centre, was something they will treasure forever.

“Dr Chang always made an effort to look less like a doctor and more like a friend.

“He would come in wearing his superhero shirt and from the beginning he never wanted to scare the children over the treatment but he wanted to make them feel comfortable.

“I think the friendliness and warmth of everyone is something that will never go away and we were so grateful for that and that is the best feeling in this situation is for people to care. Their support gave us strength and they treated us as friends and not patients. As they put it, when you come in for treatment you are a patient but you are not a number until you leave and Alexander was the 2,019th patient they have helped.”

While there, Alexander also celebrated his third birthday and Christmas and the family were able to mark the occasion with other families receiving treatment – many who had been sent by the NHS.

“A lot of the children there were sent by the NHS but obviously we felt that it was unfair. Cancer is cancer but if you do not take a chance, you will never know if it will work or not.

“I didn’t want to believe or dare to believe that we were going until we were there. We thought the NHS would send us but they didn’t.”

The family now hopes that Alexander’s case casts light on cancer in children as well as Kids ‘n’ Cancer after Mike Hyman, co-founder helped them so much.

“It is good to get the word out about tumours because I never knew about it and I only became aware of how much cancer can change your life when Alexander was diagnosed. Now more people know about Kids ‘n’ Cancer and if they want to continue to help then they can by donating to them.

“Alexander is a fighter and he has been unbelievably strong throughout it all. The way he has been dealing with it gets me through.”

The couple want to also thank Bathford Paper Mill and Fatboy Cancer Charity who donated towards the treatment as well as Mrs Vinson’s family in Romania.