DECLAN RICE has donated £5,000 to a GoFundMe campaign set up for a West Ham Under-15s goalkeeper who is fighting brain cancer.
Rice, a former Hammers youth star himself, made 245 appearances for the senior side before moving to Arsenal in July 2023.
Oscar Fairs, 14, has been a goalkeeper at West Ham since the age of nine but was diagnosed with an ependymoma brain tumour in August 2023.
The young boy has since undergone seven surgeries to remove the cancerous lump.
Rising Ballers confirmed Fairs is a season-ticket holder at West Ham who has ambitions of being the No1 shotstopper for his country.
As well his seven surgeries, Fairs has undergone one round of chemotherapy and one round of radiotherapy, but was told that palliative care was the only option.
His family have found a treatment called medulloblastoma European multitarget metronomic antiangiogenic trial (MEMMAT) which is not available in the UK.
The nearest city which provides the treatment is a facility in Lille, France, called The Oscar Lembert Center.
The cost of the whole MEMMAT treatment, plus the partial living cost to support the youngster in France is £100,000,
Over £77,500 has been raised so far towards the six-figure target.
And £5,000 of that has been donated by Rice, with a further £10,000 given by club chairman David Sullivan.
Just eight months before his diagnosis, his family were told his symptoms were mental health related, and he was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
He had been experiencing heart palpitations, right-sided weakness, headaches and sickness.
But after finding out her son has brain cancer mum Natalie is desperate to save her son’s life.
She said: “The MEMMAT trial can potentially halve the size of everything and then a surgeon can do whatever they can.
“He’s now got a cancerous spread in the middle of his brain – it’s on the outside, inside, different sides.
“It involves six forms of chemo – the first four are done orally and the last two are through a catheter into the brain.
“I need everybody and everyone to get on board with me here to save my son’s life – it’s going to cost over £70,000.”
*If you’d like to support Oscar visit https://gofund.me/dbde5a61.
More than 12,000 Brits are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year — of which around half are cancerous — with 5,300 losing their lives.
The disease is the most deadly cancer in children and adults aged under 40, according to the Brain Tumour Charity.
Brain tumours reduce life expectancies by an average of 27 years, with just 12 per cent of adults surviving five years after diagnosis.
There are two main types, with non-cancerous benign tumours growing more slowly and being less likely to return after treatment.
Cancerous malignant brain tumours can either start in the brain or spread there from elsewhere in the body and are more likely to return.
Brain tumours can cause headaches, seizures, nausea, vomiting and memory problems, according to the NHS.
They can also lead to changes in personality weakness or paralysis on one side of the problem and problems with speech or vision.
The nine most common symptoms are:
If you are suffering any of these symptoms, particularly a headache that feels different from the ones you normally get, you should visit your GP.
Source: NHS
