A GRIEVING father is fighting to force child cancer funding to the forefront of NHS and government schemes.

Poppy-Mai Barnard died in March this year from a rare malignant tumour aged just 17-months-old.

Now her dad Andrew Barnard, has launched an online petition to spread awareness of the condition.

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The 31-year-old from Blackburn said that he wants more funding available for the research of childhood cancer and is now urging 10,000 people to sign the petition so that the government will respond.

With 100,000 signatures the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.

He said: “The government isn’t putting enough money into children’s cancer research and I hope that this petition highlights the devastating effects that cancer has on families.

“Brain tumours are the biggest killers in children and the amount of people that are running around fundraising for research is diabolical.

“I won’t give up raising awareness,” said Andrew.

Next month the dad-of-three said he will be networking with other parents who have had successful petitions turned into parliamentary debates and the Poppy-Mai Foundation will be the next.

“For all of those people who have followed Poppy-Mai’s journey we are letting you know that we are not giving up.

“We want money to be ploughed into genetic research and the government should be contributing to it.

“Child cancer needs to be at the forefront of our minds. These beautiful children need our help, Please, lets help them.”

To sign the petition visit petition.parliament.uk/petitions/162934.