'The bravest little boy in the world': Family of Liam, 9, to walk for children's cancer charity

“For a little boy to go through such a traumatic experience and still have that beautiful smile on his face... that’s what kept us going.”

A Lancashire family who lost their child to cancer are now preparing to launch a community walk in his memory.

Liam Hughes, from Chorley, “was just a normal kid” who loved to spend his days playing online games and with minifigures with his friends.

His mother Lucie Allen described him as an intelligent little boy who “had been here before”, and could “light up the room with his smile”.

But in August 2023, his sister Madison Weston, 19, said their family was confronted with news nobody should have to hear.

“I was in Asda, and Liam’s dad rung and said Liam had been saying his chest was itchy and he was taking him to the doctors,” Madison told the Lancashire Evening Post.

“The next thing I knew, my mum was ringing me saying I had to go home to watch my other little brother. Liam was getting referred to a cancer ward.”

At just seven years old, Liam is thought to have been the youngest person ever diagnosed with a desmoplastic small round cell tumour.

The rare form of cancer usually occurs in the abdomen, and very rarely elsewhere in the body, as it did Liam.

It’s usually only diagnosed in people around the age of 30. Only 15% of people with the disease survive for more than five years.

“When we first went in, the nurses said Liam’s scan was ‘impressionable’,” Lucie said. “He had tumours in every organ apart from his heart and his brain.

“Liam’s treatment at the beginning was very intense, he was in and out of hospital every other week, and that was running concurrently for nine months. We’d have 12 days in, and so many days off, and then we’d go back.

“He rang the bell after the first round of treatment was finished, but that wasn’t the end of treatment for Liam.

“We went through gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, and we did clinical trials at home with oral chemotherapy, which unfortunately didn’t go to plan. It failed.

“Unfortunately, [the tumours] did travel to his brain, and at the end of his life, that took over.

“He was in hospital receiving treatment after treatment and he still sat there with his little brave, smiley face. His childhood was stripped away from him when he should have been playing and enjoying himself.”

During his time in hospital, Liam and his family made regular stays at Jack’s House, which offers free accommodation to families whose children receive cancer treatment in Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

The “home away from home” allowed them to remain close to the hospital, instead of having to drive miles each day from Chorley.

Both Lucie and Madison described the hospital and home staff as “absolutely fantastic” - even as Liam tried to hide how his illness was affecting him.

“I think he put on a brave face for Mum,” Madison said.

“He’d always pretend he wasn’t in pain, so he could do things like a normal kid. Even if he was proper struggling, he’d just pretend he wasn’t so nobody would worry about him.

“He was very strong-minded, a lot more intelligent than his age. I’ve never met a kid of his age like him.”

During his time in and out of hospital, Liam underwent several rounds of chemotherapy, and a further 20 rounds of radiotherapy.

However, despite his determination, he passed away barely a month before his tenth birthday on January 10 2026.

“He was just so grown up and mature and understanding of his illness,” Lucie said. “That was the hardest part for us as a family: to watch him be so brave when he was going through so much.

“As his mum and as an adult, I couldn’t have gone through what Liam went through. It was just the determination in him, he just wanted to get better, and he wanted to do it for everyone else.

“He was the bravest little boy ever.”

Now eight months later, Liam’s family have come together to fundraise for the Young Lives vs Cancer charity, who also run Jack’s House.

Though a date is yet to be confirmed, they will be undertaking a seven-to-eight mile charity walk around Chorley’s Yarrow Valley, and have already raised £641 out of their £1,000 goal.

“I’m immensely blown away with all the support that we’ve received so far,” Lucie said.

“We were blown away at the amount of people who came forward that even want to participate in the walk. There’s children from Liam’s school, his classmates, some parents that want to participate as well.

“It’s just really warming for us as a family to know that there’s that many people who want to keep Liam’s memory alive.

“I’m really excited, but at the same time, I’m apprehensive. I’m nervous. We’re doing this walk for Liam, but there’s families that we know who are going through similar battles.

“You do everything you can for your child to make sure that you’re supporting them in the best way possible in such a devastating situation. But there are things out there that can help, and take a little bit of that pressure off in your darkest hours.”

Less than a year on from his passing, both Lucie and Madison said they continue to miss Liam every day.

But Lucie said there was another reason she was more determined than ever to keep his memory alive.

“I’ve just found out I’m 17 weeks pregnant,” she said.

“I did my gender reveal, and I didn’t look at the date, but it turned out it was the day that Liam got his first Hickman line fitted, at the very beginning of his journey. And then I found out I was having a little boy on the same day.

“Liam’s birthday was on February 16, and my little boy is due on February 19.

“Every day I count as a blessing, and I take it as a little sign from Liam. It might sound crazy to some, but to me, that’s how I get through my days.

“That spurs me on just that little bit more to keep going and keep his memory alive.”

A link to the family’s Young Lives vs Cancer fundraiser is available here.