THE mother of terminally-ill football mascot Bradley Lowery has asked people to stop contacting her on social media to see if he has died.

The six-year-old Sunderland fan has the rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma and his winning smile, despite his ordeal, has touched the world of football, and beyond.

His family, from Blackhall Colliery, have used social media to regularly update his many thousands of well-wishers around the world about his condition.

His mother, Gemma, wrote on the Facebook page Bradley Lowery’s fight against Neuroblastoma that she could not respond to the many messages she receives asking how he is doing.

She also said she will not respond to messages recommending alternative therapies, such as cannabis oil.

She wrote: “As a parent I’ve done and tried everything I can to cure Bradley, but unfortunately nothing has worked.”

And Mrs Lowery has been forced to ask people to stop speculating about his death.

She wrote: “Also I really don’t like to read messages saying that you think my child is going to die within the next week, asking if he has died yet, or asking if I know when he is going to die, so please think of how I feel when reading that sort of thing before sending a message.”

Meanwhile, a charity single in honour of Bradley has been shooting up the download charts.

The single Smile for Bradley was released on Friday morning and has already reached the download chart and was last night 11th in the iTunes charts - and got into the top five of the official charts. The single was recorded by sister duo Liv ‘n’ G, of Hartlepool, who also released a Christmas song for Bradley which made the top 20. 

They are pushing for the song - which is raising money to help the Bradley Lowery Foundation support other children going through treatment - to reach number one.

They have reworked Charlie Chaplin’s classic Smile, also recorded by Nat King Cole and Michael Jackson, with an original verse inspired by Bradley. 

The song is on course to be this week’s highest new entry on the Official Singles chart, currently number four in the latest sales flash.