TODDLER George Mitchell has started chemotherapy in his battle against a tumour embedded deep within his brain.

Parents Fraser and Sophie say their son is 'going through the mill' after suffering infections, chicken pox and soaring temperatures since he began the 12-week course.

They said he now looks like a typical chemo patient with pale skin and sunken eyes. However they will not know whether the treatment is successful until the course is complete.

But the family, of Mallard Avenue, in Lyneham, says it has not given up on a back-up plan for George to have a £75,000 pioneering brain operation in the United States, if the treatment fails.

Mr Mitchell said doctors fear the two-year-old boy may not live to see his 10th birthday.

British surgeons told the family surgery was too risky and George, who has two brothers, 14-month-old Harvey and Jack, aged 11, was too young to have radiotherapy, which could damage the development of his brain.

They had resigned themselves to this prognosis, but by chance a sister-in-law found an article about a pioneering operation in America.

It said Dr Patrick Kelly had successfully operated on a two-year-old girl from Manchester with a brain tumour in a similar position to George's, using computer-guided instruments and lasers.

The girl is now 12 and the tumour has not returned.

Mr Mitchell, 37, said George is so ill when he comes home after his injections at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital on Thursdays that the family has ended up taking him back to hospital.

To make matters worse scans have revealed that the tot has another tumour in his spine.

But the family say they have scant information about the second cancer and are trying to find out as much as possible before deciding how to deal with it.

Mr Mitchell, who works for the defence procurement agency at Abbeywood in Bristol said his family is praying George's treatment is a success, but added that it has continued with its fund-raising appeal for cash so George can be whisked off to America if the chemo fails.

The family have sold their cars, cashed their savings, closed their membership of the National Trust and even stopped eating Chinese takeaways to raise half the money they need.

Mrs Mitchell said people from her home town of Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, have busked, collected money in tins while dressed as Walt Disney cartoon characters, and held raffles to help raise £20,000 for the appeal fund.

A local Peugeot garage set up a website for the toddler called www.pledgeforgeorge.co.uk

If anyone wants to give a donation, or has fund-raising ideas, contact Andy Davey at the Gazette on (01249) 654422.