AN INSPIRATIONAL Studley youngster is celebrating his nomination for a Pride of Birmingham Award after a life-changing operation just three months ago.
Ollie Stevens-Smith has spent the last year of his life battling Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, which has seen the nine-year-old undergo 14 rounds of chemotherapy following his diagnosis last September.
Doctors advised the Studley family, which includes Ollie’s twin brother Joseph and their five siblings, of three choices Ollie could take to fight the cancer.
These included bone replacement, above knee amputation or rotationplasty.
After an agonising decision with parents Jo and Justin, brave Ollie opted for the later which saw him undergo an operation at the Royal Orthopedic Hospital on May 18.
The surgery involved Ollie’s lower leg being partially amputated and put on backwards, granting him the best chance of mobility and of beating the cancer.
Mum Jo said: “He just gets on with it, it’s like it’s not a big deal to him.”
Whilst waiting for his operation Ollie decided he wanted to raise funds for a chill-out room that could be used by siblings as their brothers and sisters underwent surgery at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
His £5,000 total was smashed in weeks and Ollie went on to raise £13,000 for the hospital and a further £12,000 for other charities close to his heart.
Following this incredible achievement Ollie’s aunt Sara nominated her brave nephew for a Pride of Birmingham Award in the hope that the youngster, who turns 10 on Sunday (August 16), will take home a much-deserved prize at a gala night on October 2 in Birmingham’s Town Hall.
“We are delighted,” said Jo. “He definitely deserves to be nominated and it was such a surprise. We had no idea my sister was putting Ollie forward – it just came out the blue.”
Ollie, who is undergoing radiotherapy every day for the next fortnight, will be adding to his fund-raising total by holding a yard sale on August 23 for charity Molly Olly’s which gave him a laptop to use in hospital.
