A six-year-old St John’s boy who had three years of gruelling treatment for leukaemia has raised more than £2,000 for the hospital where he spent most of his time.

George Peers and his school friends ran the 2k race at the Surrey Half, raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

George's mum, Clare, said she and husband James noticed that George had a loss of appetite and wasn’t engaged with activities at his pre-school.

When his gums started bleeding at night George was taken to see a doctor.

“We took him for blood tests at Ashford hospital and at 4am the next day got a call to take him to A&E immediately,” Clare said.

After a leukaemia diagnosis, George began six months of intensive chemotherapy with severe side effects.

“It’s really brutal,” Clare said.

“George rapidly lost weight, refused to eat and initially also refused to drink and so had to be fed through a tube.”

This was followed by maintenance treatment with more severe side-effects.

On 12 July George got to ring a bell in hospital, which is a way of marking the end of a cancer treatment.

Clare is a keen runner and suggested George did a race for charity.

“I put it out on the parents Chat that he was doing the Surrey Half 2k and loads of them signed their children up.

“George wore a green T-shirt because that’s his favourite colour and his friends bought the shirt with ‘George’s Running Team 2024’ on them.

“The parents and children had the most amazing time supporting George.

“The nurses, doctors, consultants and play team at the Royal Marsden are all exceptional and have made a really difficult period in our lives so much brighter.”