THE FAMILY of a six-year-old boy who battled cancer are one step closer to building him a life-improving sensory room.

When doctors found tumours on Tyler Witherall’s spine and brain two years ago he needed intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy to save his life.

On Wednesday Tyler, of Bowers Road, Benfleet, will celebrate one year since his last chemotherapy treatment but the gruelling treatment, which included operations, left him death and blind on one side.

His family have raised about £17,000 to build a special sensory room which they hope will help improve his sight and hearing.

His grandmother, Dawn Witherall, 46, said: “Tyler had quite a rare form of cancer and actually needed adult dose treatment.

“During an operation a nerve got nicked which caused the blindness, deafness and his face to drop.

“We’ve got a conservatory and have decided to knock it down and build a sensory room to help him.

“We now have planning permission and some of the equipment; a mirror with flashing lights and things which make noise, which could improve his sight and hearing.”

The family plan to knock the conservatory down themselves but now need three builders to give them a quote for the project and are appealing for builders to get in touch to help.

Mrs Witherall added: “We’ve held lots of fundraising events, we held a clothes swap where you took a bag of clothes and paid a fiver to swap it.

“Then his school, the Holy Family School in Benfleet, and Peggy’s Cafe held a fun day to raise money which made about £7,000.

“It’s so touching, I could cry. I would do anything for him but half of these people don’t know him and they want to help him.”

Any builders interested in quoting for the project can email dawnwitherall@msn.com