THE mum of a seriously ill schoolboy has praised the health services and called on the public to “stand up for our NHS.”

Oscar Saxelby-Lee’s mother, Olivia Saxelby, was speaking as the five-year-old's treatment in Singapore for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia gets underway.

In a Facebook post, she said: “£12,000 down for a two-night stay here in hospital and the process of payment is rather tricky and time consuming.

“This whole journey so far has been so tough but also eye opening as to just how fortunate we are to have our NHS.

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“Oscar may not be undergoing treatment in the UK right now but if it wasn’t for them, he wouldn’t have got to where he is now either.

“On that note they will not stop caring for him on our return. We need to fight for our NHS, we truly do. To stand up to cancer we must stand up for our NHS.”

Oscar and his family travelled to Singapore last week after raising £500,000 to fund his CAR-T cell therapy, treatment which was not available to them on the NHS.

Since then, Oscar’s cells have been sent to the laboratory and he is now out of intensive care.

Miss Saxelby said it was “the most horrific procedure yet.”

She added: “24 hours in PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit), lots of sedation, one vascath fitted (tube into the vein), one cell harvest, one line blockage, many tears, and a Burger King.

“We are slowly adapting to the ‘Singaporean’ way but as you can imagine it’s oh so different to the UK.

“We visually saw what we wouldn’t have done back home during the line removal which shook us quite a lot, but in some ways it’s opened our eyes up to just how easily one small procedure can go wrong.

“It’s also highlighted how well our health professionals do in taking care of our children and being so thorough in what they do. We have free healthcare, here you don’t.

“Yes they have an ability to expand research and compassionately treat patients but the NHS is without a doubt one superb addition to our country.”