A YOUNG boy from Emmer Green has won a national award for courage at a cancer charity's awards ceremony.

Charlie Ilsley, 12, who has been cleared of cancer, won the Bradley Lowery Courage Award at the Against Breast Cancer Achievement Awards, last week (Thursday October 24).

READ MORE: Emmer Green boy "unbelievably well" after being cleared of cancer.

The awards ceremony took place at The Hilton, Reading, and was organised by the charity, Against Breast Cancer.

Kelly Gibson, head of fundraising at the charity, said: "The event recognises amazing people from our communities who go above and beyond to help others or achieve their own goals.

"Every year we meet a whole host of people who you can't help admire."

The Bradley Lowery award recognises someone who is brave and courageous in their own way and is in honour of a six year old boy from County Durham who died from childhood cancer, neuroblastoma.

Charlies mother, Toni, explained Charlie tried on a red sequined hat at the ceremony's photobooth before the results were announced claiming it was his "winning hat".

Reading Chronicle:

When Charlie found out he had won, the owner of the hat rushed to give it to him before he collected his award on stage.

Charlie was nominated for the award by Claire Brown from the Cotswolds who first heard of his plight on Channel 4's Celebrity Bake Off and has since fundraised to raise money for his medical treatments.

Her efforts include setting up an online auction with donations including signed Ed Sheeran merchandise.

READ MORE: Ed Sheeran signs merchandise for online auction raising money for Reading boy.

Ms Brown said: "The award not only highlights Charlie's immense bravery but also raises awareness for child cancer in general."

Speaking of Ms Brown, Mrs Ilsley revealed she is an "unbelievable" woman who goes "above and beyond".

She said: “What would we do without her?

"It is like she came along just when we needed her.”

About Charlie

At the age of 8, Charlie was diagnosed with a brain tumour called medulloblastoma.

He endured emergency surgery to remove the tumour and then many rounds of radiation followed by four stem cell transplants.

He was recovering well, until the devastating news in March 2018 that the tumour had returned in two places on his spine.

Two further rounds of chemotherapy didn’t halt the growth and the tumours doubled in size during this period.

In early 2019, he underwent Cyberknife treatment in Turkey at a huge cost - most of the money was raised through crowdfunding and one generous private donor.

His follow-up scans remain clear and in July 2019 he started immunotherapy treatment in Germany to prevent the disease from returning.

To fundraise for this treatment, Ms Brown has set up a fundraising page which can be found here.

If you would like to follow Charlie's progress, you can visit his Facebook page, here, where you can have the chance to be invited to prize raffle draws.