THE mum of a five-year-old boy fighting leukaemia hopes her Tele-backed campaign to ‘Go Gold’ will bring about life-saving changes.

Gillian Mowat of Gourock wants the whole of Inverclyde to ‘light up’ for children suffering from cancer and join forces with them in a show of solidarity.

Her son Nathan has faced a battle every day since he was diagnosed and faces gruelling treatment for the next two years. We are urging as many places as possible - schools, businesses and workplaces - to join with us and switch on gold lightbulbs on September 1.

We also hope that on the day people can Go Gold in other ways, by wearing an item of gold-coloured clothing, throwing a gold-themed event, or out sporting a ribbon or badge to show their support.

Gillian hopes to raise awareness of the desperate need for more funding for treatment and research, improved GP training and help for parents to spot the warning signs of serious illness.

She said: “I can’t thank the Tele enough and everyone else who is going to support us.

“It means the world to me.

“This is such an important campaign. When you look at the statistics it is frightening - only five per cent of all money spent on cancer is targeted at childhood cancer.

“There have been no new drugs created in the last 30 years and unfortunately childhood cancer is not rare, it happens to far too many families.”

One of Gillian’s major concerns is the need for GPs to be more aware of the symptoms.

She said: “I am really lucky as my GP Dr Stewart was amazing in our case.

“But the number of people you speak to who had to go back time and time again before it was recognised was frightening. That needs to change.”

Nathan is currently taking part in a trial treatment at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

Gillian said: “We recognise that we need to do this to help other patients and need to find a way of improving treatments so that there are not so many terrible side effects, because that is one of the worst parts of it all.”

People locally can find out more about the Go Gold campaign on Facebook https://m.facebook.com/glowgoldseptember or Twitter@glowgoldkids

To Go Gold you need to get gel filters E101 Yellow for LED and Halogen lighting.

To find out more visit www.stagedepot.co.uk or call Jean Paul on 01179 727124 or alternatively email jp@stagedepot.co.uk