LOCAL MP Kim Leadbeater has backed a leading children's cancer charity following the huge community response to the Get Beau to Sloan campaign.
The Batley and Spen MP praised the numerous fundraising efforts made by people in her constituency to support local five-year-old Beau who has a rare form of cancer.
The community banded together to raise £317,000 for Beau, from Roberttown, to go to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York for treatment for her rare form of neuroblastoma.
Following the campaign, Ms Leadbeater has praised the community who are continuing to fundraise for charity Solving Kids' Cancer to help other ill children get the cancer treatment they need.
The Get Beau to Sloan target was hit last month, boosted by appearances on national television, with Beau set to travel and receive experimental and promising vaccine treatment to fight the cancer.
Her mother Shirley Hepworth has now promised that any extra funds raised will go to Solving Kids' Cancer.
Earlier this week, Ms Leadbeater met with the charities chief executive Gail Jackson and chair of trustees Nick Bird in Westminster, pledging to use her role as an MP to call for an international vaccine trial led by the UK.
She said: "Neuroblastoma can be a devastating disease.
"Fortunately high risk neuroblastoma that Beau is so bravely battling is relatively rare, but for every family facing a diagnosis it is an enormous strain and they should not have to face it alone.
"Solving Kids' Cancer have been doing vitally important work in this field but there is much more to be done to help secure the funding and clinical support for a UK-led vaccine trial.
"We must all hope that in the future young children like Beau don’t have to go abroad for help. It will be a long road but I hope to make progress with an all-party approach at Westminster."
Gail Jackson, from the charity, added: "We were delighted and honoured to meet with Kim Leadbeater MP who has shown such an interest and commitment to addressing the needs of children facing a neuroblastoma diagnosis here in the UK.
"We are looking forward to working with Kim to develop a cross-party broader strategy alongside experts and parent advocates to consider how to bring more innovative therapies to the UK.
"We’re grateful to Kim and her team for helping to establish such a momentous opportunity for real system change within paediatric cancer research."
Further fundraising events for Beau are planned in the coming weeks in the Spen Valley, Queensbury, and Drighlington.
Shirley Hepworth, Beau's mother, said: “I am so humbled by the response of the community and could not be more grateful.
"Without the support we have received this campaign would have been nothing. You have all got Beau to Sloan and have given my beautiful little girl the opportunity to receive the life-saving treatment she so desperately needs. Thank you."
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