Community unites to help seriously-ill nine-year-old Alex

A seriously ill nine-year-old boy from the Harborough district is going to America soon for ground-breaking surgery aimed at halting his rare form of bone cancer.

Alexander Goodwin will have his right femur bone and both hip bones removed and replaced and his pelvis reconstructed in a radical operation by an international specialist in Kansas City.

The femur will be replaced by a prosthetic bone which is telescopic, and can “grow” with the aid of magnets.

An anonymous benefactor has added to a Justgiving website campaign to cover the cost of Alex’s treatment in the USA,

His father Jeff Goodwin told the Mail: “Even then, Alex is unlikely to be able to walk without aids for the rest of his life.”

Other possible outcomes include amputation.

At the moment, Alex is still having chemotherapy, travelling backwards and forwards between hospitals in Leicester and Birmingham and his family home in a village near Lutterworth, where he lives with dad Jeff, mum Maria, and his little sister Sophia (four). He is likely to be in hospital in America over Christmas.

Jeff, a police officer with Warwickshire Police, and based in Rugby, said although Alex is very ill, he is still outgoing and upbeat.

“Alex is very gentle, very astute and very positive. He still appears to genuinely care about how other people are more than himself.”

In the meantime, friends, police colleagues and the public have rallied round in a remarkable way to help raise money for Alex’s long recuperation. A song called ‘Horizon On My Mind’, written by police colleague Dave Jones, has been donated to the cause, and advance sales so far have been so great there is a real chance the song could make the UK top 20 when it is released on Monday, December 5.

The song, reminiscent of Bon Jovi, “is about my journey, about this cancer” says Alex.

A video to go with the song partly filmed at Warwickshire Police HQ in Leek Wootton, south of Kenilworth, features hundreds of police officers, dogs and horses from 36 UK police forces and the national police force. It also features police from Canada, America, Gibraltar, Bermuda and Australia.

“Alex’s plight really struck a chord with the police family” said Jeff.

You can pre-order ‘Horizon On My Mind’ for just 99p from Amazon and iTunes now. Or you can text HOMM to 85888.

Jeff said: “For every 99p spent, 70p will go directly to Alexander’s Journey, to fund the massive amount of rehabilitation he’s going to need after surgery.”

And in a message on the Alexander’s Journey Twitter page, posted this week, the family say: “Not only has the financial support been unbelievable, but the acts of kindness offered by people all over the UK and the world has been overwhelming.”

Alex was diagnosed with the rare Ewing Sarcoma form of cancer on June 6.

Jeff said: “We’re very private people, but we made the decision to go public with this, to help Alex and also to give him confidence.

“It gives him confidence to know that people feel happy to support him - and he’s very excited about the song.”

Alex is likely to leave Britain for the complex operations as soon as next week.