When Debbie Howson recently celebrated her 50th birthday, instead of asking for gifts, she asked her friends and family for donations for Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where her grandson, Isaac Johnston, received life-saving brain surgery to remove a cancerous tumour when he was only four months old.

Isaac is now three years old, and will be starting school in September. Debbie told the Gazette that he is a healthy, happy little boy, and has beaten all the odds.

Debbie told the Gazette: “I just wanted to give something back to the hospital. They saved my grandson and he means more to me than anything else.”

At Debbie’s 50th birthday party, Debbie raised £473.44 and she said that she was very grateful to everyone who made a donation.

In April 2014, Isaac made his debut appearance in the Ross Gazette. His parents, Beccy and Greg, had organised a charity skittles event at Welsh Newton Social Club, to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House in Birmingham, where they had stayed when Isaac was in hospital.

When Isaac was ill, this helped alleviate some of the burden put on the family of the long terms costs associated with getting him to treatment and staying near him. They raised £1405 for Ronald McDonald House, which relies on charitable donations to run.