A boy with cancer will spend six weeks in hospital and his mother has made an emotional appeal for cards to be sent to them, ahead of their trip, which he can then open while he's away.

Harry Addy, nine, from Rivermead, Stalham, loves opening cards and gifts so his mother Melanie wants well-wishers to send him a little card, note or gift to take with them to the Christie Hospital in Manchester. He can then open them during the time they are away.

Harry will undergo pioneering proton therapy treatment during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

He has a cancerous 'pilocytic astrocytoma' spinal cord tumour, which he's been battling since December 2015.

He also has leptomeningeal disease in his brain - a rare complication of his cancer in which the disease spreads to the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

His mother said: "We've finally got a date for Harry to start proton therapy on December 30.

"It will be six weeks in Manchester away from home, away from his family and his friends. Six weeks of daily hospital visits and daily treatment. He won't be allowed home in these six weeks.

"It's going to be another tough few weeks for Harry. He's still struggling physically and emotionally after four years of surgeries and different chemotherapies.

"But we'd like people's help this time. Harry loves opening cards and gifts so we are asking for anyone who has been following Harry's journey to send him a little card, note or gift that we can take with us, for him to open during the six weeks away."

The schoolboy has already undergone two major operations to remove the growth, procedures that meant he had to re-learn how to walk.

He's also just finished an 18 month-long stint of weekly chemotherapy.

Proton therapy is a type of radiotherapy said to pinpoint tumours with better accuracy while reducing collateral damage to other organs.

Harry's treatment on the NHS was recently approved.

The address to send the cards to is Harry Addy, c/o Mrs Wymer, Landseer, Rectory Road, Sutton, Norwich NR12 9SB.