A CHARITY set up in memory of a schoolboy who died from a brain tumour is to help fund groundbreaking international research aimed at discovering new treatments for the disease.

OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity was created by the parents and friends of Oscar Hughes from York, who died from a brain tumour in 2014 at the age of nine.

Now the charity has revealed it will donate £125,000 towards improving understanding and treatment of the type of childhood brain tumour which took Oscar’s life.

The research will be funded in partnership with The Brain Tumour Charity and led by Professor Louis Chesler at the world-renowned Institute of Cancer Research in London.

Professor Chesler is working with researchers based in Germany and the USA to analyse the genetic make-up of the most common malignant brain tumour in children.

The researchers will also work on new ways to test drugs for the tumour.

If successful, the five-year initiative could lead to the development of new drugs to treat medulloblastoma.

The donation from OSCAR’s, made up of £25,000 per year for the next five years, will help to fund UK-based researchers working on the project.

Oscar, who lived in Dunnington, was initially diagnosed with a brain tumour in February 2013. He appeared to respond well to treatment but later suffered a relapse.

His parents, Marie and Ian, went on to set up the charity with the aim of helping to fund research projects like the one at the ICR.