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Brave Seasalter schoolboy Reece Puddington ticks off dreams on 'bucket list' after cancer bombshell
00:01, 02 February 2014
An 11-year-old boy has posted a heartbreaking "bucket list" on his Facebook page – which includes having his own bedroom and meeting Captain Jack Sparrow – after revealing he has suffered a second relapse in his five-year battle to beat cancer.
Reece Puddington, of Freemans Close, Seasalter, was first diagnosed with neuroblastoma in April 2008 and doctors told him there is no cure.
In October, his family told how he was looking forward to his birthday and Christmas after responding well to a newly-trialled drug taken after suffering his first relapse in August 2012.
But the Swalecliffe Primary School pupil told friends earlier this month he had been diagnosed with a liver tumour during tests after feeling unwell.
He called the diagnosis a "bombshell".
Reece told followers: "I'd thought about doing a bucket list ever since I relapsed, but as I had spent the best part of it thriving and shifting disease, it isn't something I wanted to rush.
"Given my recent decline in health I feel now is the time and I'd like to share it with you all.
"Some things will be possible and some things will remain a dream, but they will be MY wishes."
The list of things he wants to do contains a trip to Sun City in South Africa after watching World's Strongest Man, meeting actor Johnny Depp dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow and having a Hobbit House in his back garden.
Other wishes include his own bedroom, an Xbox, a laptop – as he cannot get out of bed – a Wetherspoon's breakfast surrounded by friends and family, and watching mum Kay learn to drive.
Kay says the response has been "overwhelming", with generous well-wishers already helping Reece tick off some of the list.
She said: "Since Reece posted his bucket list it has been viewed 11,000 times in the space of 48 hours so the response has been overwhelming.
"It isn't something we wanted to rush.
"It was more of a gap filler to update people on Reece's progress but it has just snowballed. It has been very emotional for us.
"It is amazing people care that much and take the time to contact us and spend their money in the current climate.
"We really do appreciate the steps people are going through for us."
Staff at The Peter Cushing pub, in Oxford Street, helped Reece realise one of his dreams when they brought a full English breakfast to him in bed.
Reece's wish for a black beats pill – a portable bluetooth speaker – was also crossed off after a donation from one of his supporters.
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