In March this year three-year-old Dennis Aleksandrovich was given just a few days to live – now he is alive and recovering well thanks to a heroic team effort carried out by a team of top British doctors at The Harley Street Clinic.

Doctors in Russia and Israel had said that they were unable to help the Russian youngster. A tumour originally in his spine had spread to his oesophagus and was obstructing all but 3mm of his windpipe. In their opinion this made it impossible to even anaesthetise him.

By the time he arrived in the UK he was choking and struggling to breathe. He was seen by Dr Stergios Zacharoulis, a leading paediatric oncologist based at The Harley Street Clinic who did think that there was a good chance that Dennis could make it through surgery.

Within 24 hours he had helped to gather a team of six consultants from four different hospital trusts. Dennis was in the operating theatre for eight hours – during which four different surgeons operated on him at The Harley Street Clinic and removed a water melon sized cancer.

The previously terminally ill child has since been out running around in the park.

“The speed with which people from a very high level came together to give this boy the best possible chance was amazing,” says Dr Zacharoulis.

“Before this surgery this little boy was in major discomfort. But now he has made the most fantastic recovery.” Dennis will now undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the hospital.