INFAMOUS anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide could give terminally ill Trowbridge schoolgirl Charlotte Wakeham new hope.

The drug, responsible for thousands of deformed babies in the 1950s and 70s, has been used to successfully treat a five-year-old boy in Australia and the tumour in his brain stem has shrunk to half its former size.

Charlotte's grandmother, Wendy Bryant, said: "This is very exciting and we are hoping to take Charlotte out to America where she will be able to get this treatment."

Ms Bryant was contacted by little Roan Clarkson's grandmother, Audrey Kenward of Warminster, who saw Charlotte's story in the Wiltshire Times.

Mrs Kenward said: "I saw the article and thought I had to let Charlotte's family know about my grandson.

"My daughter heard about this treatment through others and she wanted to make sure it was passed on and people knew there had been some success."

Roan, who lives with his parents, Brian and Carol and sister Iona in Australia, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in April last year, a month before Charlotte's parents received similar devastating news.

He underwent surgery, which removed half of the mass, and then had 31 sessions of radiotherapy over the next three months.

Just three weeks later the problems with his balance and vision that were apparent before the treatment returned and he seemed to be getting worse.

Another brain scan revealed the tumour had grown back and was now even larger than it had been before the operation.

Doctors told his heartbroken parents it was just a matter of time before the cancer killed Roan, and offered chemotherapy as a way of trying to buy him a little more time.

Mrs Kenward said: "It was devastating, but my daughter was not going to let Roan go without a fight. If there is any avenue to explore they will explore it."

A scan in December showed the tumour had not grown any further, but neither had it shrunk.

It was at this time Roan's parents heard about trials being carried on the use of thalidomide to provide palliative care for adults with brain tumours.

Thalidomide became notorious in the 1960s after it was prescribed to pregnant women to combat nausea but restricted the growth of blood vessels in the foetus, resulting in babies born with missing or deformed limbs.

The Clarksons discovered that a combination of the Thalidomide and chemotherapy had been used with some success in the USA to tackle brain tumours.

They managed to gain permission to try this combination of drugs on Roan and he started the treatment on December 19, the day after his fifth birthday.

They hoped that the treatment would prevent the tumour growing any further but a scan last week showed that it has actually shrunk to half its former size.

Mrs Kenward said: "It is fantastic, a lot more than we expected. The treatment is continuing and if it can shrink the tumour by 50 per cent then who knows what will happen next."

Charlotte's family now hope that some of the money raised by well-wishers for Charlotte's Chance of Life fund can be used to take her to the Dana-Farber Institute in Boston, USA.