Sunderland boxing club shows support to six-year-old Oliver Maw who is battling neuroblastoma by holding a 5K run

The family of six-year-old Oliver Maw are trying to raise £230,000 for a potentially life-saving vaccine after he was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma in February this year.

While he undergoes treatment, Oliver has to be separated from his identical brothers Owen and Oscar as mum Phillipa Maw and her family, with the help of the Bradley Lowery Foundation, to pay for the vaccine which is designed to reduce the chances of cancer returning – but is only available abroad.

An online fundraiser has been set up and so far, over £20,000 has been raised – with more people getting involved as word spreads.

After hearing the news, Sunderland East End A.B.C, on Robinson Terrace in Hendon, decided that it would hold a special 5K run and walk on Sunday, July 4 in honour of Oliver in an effort to raise some money.

Club support and admin officer, Leanne Malcom said: “We had all read about Oliver and it really touched the heart of Sara New, who is our qualified coach and club welfare officer, so we decided that we wanted to get everyone together and give something back.

"The day was absolutely unbelievable, the club is ran entirely by volunteers and to ask people to show up at 9am on a Sunday after the England match is an achievement in itself.

"As a club, we have faced our own battles and we do a lot of fundraising for ourselves to be able to buy new equipment so it was brilliant this time to be doing it on behalf of Oliver’s family.

"The word had even spread that much that Paul Bainbridge, who is the head coach of Brandon Boxing Club in Durham, and Laura Sargent, who runs Middlesbrough Boxing Club and is an England coach, even came along to take part in the day.

The boxing club are still currently totalling up the amount of money raised however it is estimated that the total is over £5,000.

Oliver’s school, Diamond Hall Infant Academy, have also been fundraising for the pupil, with the entire school getting involved in a ‘superhero day’.

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