Dylan is an 8 year old little boy who for the past 14 months has been receiving treatment for Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

In July 2023 after 10 months of battling for answers Dylan was found to have a tumour that filled the entire left side of his hip that had also spread to his lungs. Dylan had to start treatment immediately and was given a less than 50% chance of survival.

Since then he has received 14 courses of high strength chemotherapy, 6 weeks of proton beam therapy on his hip, 2 weeks of radiotherapy on his lungs and he is currently on his 6th month of 12 of oral chemotherapy.

Unfortunately due to the size of his tumour which was a result of the long misdiagnosis his mass is inoperable so can not be removed and he has also been left with life long disabilities that will only get worse with age.

Even with all of this to contend with Dylan has never stopped smiling! He spent Halloween admitted to hospital having chemo, Christmas and new year living away from home having chemo and proton beam therapy and his 8th birthday also admitted to hospital having chemo and not once did he complain!

He has also not let this get in the way of his dreams to be a ‘Champion Dressage Rider’ (in his words!) and has been chasing his goals the entire time riding as much as he can and returning to competing in February this year!

Dylan currently has a pony on loan called Inki who he does all of his dressage on. Before Dylan got him Inki had never done a dressage test and Dylan has worked incredibly hard to produce him as a dressage pony which is even harder considering his left side weakness but he has done a brilliant job and since being back competing this year they have qualified and competed at the RDA national championships (bringing home 3x1st places, 1x2nd place and a 5th place against adults being the only child) and the Grade 6 canter RDA championships at the Equissage Pulse bronze and silver championships (bringing home 5th place also against adults and a few other much older children). They also started their affiliated British Dressage journey in august and qualified for the Quest regionals in Intro and Prelim, associated championships in Intro and prelim and already has all three scores needed to qualify for the Winter Area Festivals at prelim bronze!

Dylan has big dreams and when a friend offered for me to bring him over to have a ride on McFlurry an established medium dressage pony that she had in for sale I thought it would be a great opportunity to see if he could ride something much more advanced than Inki and if I’m honest I thought it would be too much for him to handle but boy did he prove me wrong!! I have never seen him smile so much whilst riding he had the time of his life!!

Whilst aboard McFlurry with a huge smile Dylan said to me if it would be possible to have him for his birthday?! It made my heart sink a little knowing I would never ever have the money to buy him a pony like this, a pony that could make his dreams come true in the very near future, which is really important to me as we have to live life to the full and make as much as we can of the here and now not knowing what the future could hold for Dylan.

After sharing some videos of Dylan riding McFlurry on our social media so many lovely people expressed how good they where together and how I should set up a go fund me so here I am… asking for help to make my hero who is also my little boys dreams come true… it may not work we may not be able to raise what we need in time but I have to try for Dylan’s sake!

McFlurry has FEI potential and has competed successfully in Dressage Ireland competitions upto Medium, he even won the medium class at the national championships in 2022! Unfortunately his rider has now outgrown him and he is now with my friend in England to be sold. McFlurry also has an absolutely wonderful temperament and in the two times Dylan has ridden him has already taught him so much as a rider! They really would have a fantastic future together if I could make this happen, but to do that I need to raise his cost price of £22,250.

If anyone can help in any small way I can’t even tell you how greatful I would be and even if you’re unable to spare any money just sharing would be hugely helpful!

Thank you all so much for your support I’m really hoping we can together make Dylan’s dreams a reality he so deserves it