WHEN Sameer Ahmed blew out his birthday candles last year he had everything to live for.

But today, as Sameer celebrates his third birthday, his family is planning a special party for him - as it could be his last.

Until a few months ago, the toddler from Stockton was crawling, laughing and playing.

But just before Christmas his parents were told that their only child was suffering from a degenerative disease and now needs 24-hour care.

He is fed through a tube and spends his days in a specially adapted wheelchair.

His rapid decline has come as a shock to his mother, Shamaila, and aunt, Tanzeela.

Tanzeela said: "When he was born he was perfectly healthy, and at his second birthday party you would never have known that he would soon become so ill."

When he still couldn't walk at the age of two, Sameer was seen by a doctor, that led to a series of scans and tests which revealed his life-shortening disease.

Tanzeela said: "I was totally shocked when I looked up his condition on the internet and read that children with it can only live to between five and eight years.

"He now sleeps in the same room as his parents and needs one-to-one support day and night. We are holding a family party for him next Sunday. We just don't know if this will be his last one."

A lifeline for his mother has been the Sunrise Sure Start Children's Centre, in Yarm Road, Stockton, where Sameer has been a regular visitor since he was a baby.

Jolanda Hamill, a mother who knows Sameer and Shamaila well, was so moved by their plight that she is doing everything she can to ensure Sameer's remaining days are happy ones.

She has set up a fundraising campaign, called Support Sameer with Sunshine, to give Sameer and his family fun-filled memories.

A sponsored toddle in Ropner Park, Stockton, on Saturday, which Sameer was too poorly to attend, raised £126.

This is going to be used to treat Sameer and his friends to a day out at Digger Land in County Durham to celebrate his birthday. The visit will be filmed and given as a DVD to his parents as lasting memory.

A pub quiz is also being planned to raise more cash for a trip to Flamingo Land, in North Yorkshire.

Ms Hamill said: "I have known Shamaila and Sameer for more than a year and I wanted to do something practical to help them. The campaign is called support Sameer with sunshine because we want him to have as many more fun days out in sunshine as possible."

For more information log onto supportsameer.info or support sameer.moonfruit.com