The mother of a nine-year-old boy battling a brain tumour has joined the Independent's campaign to save Chase Farm's threatened accident and emergency unit.

Yvonne Evans, 37, said the standard of care she received at the hospital in The Ridgeway when her nine-year-old son, Daniel, needed emergency treatment was second-to-none.

Daniel was diagnosed with a malignant tumour when he was two-years-old. He was in remission for almost five years before the tumour returned during the summer.

He began to suffer terrible headaches, and in September lost his balance and fell over at St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School in Durants Road, grazing his face.

Yvonne checked him into Chase Farm Hospital's A&E unit where doctors gave him a brain scan. He was later transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

She said: "If these plans go through I frankly don't know where we would be. There were staff at Chase Farm who knew us from the first time around.

"I am lucky that we have a car but if I was travelling by public transport to Barnet Hospital it would be near impossible to get there."

"I was devastated when the consultant sat me down along with close family, before telling me the cancer had returned, more malignant and aggressive. Daniel is the purest soul I have ever met and is my best friend. We get on fabulously and he is all I have."

Last month, a surgeon at Great Ormond Street removed the tumour during a seven-hour operation. Now Daniel faces weeks of radiotherapy sessions to stop the cancer cells from returning.

She added: "The radiotherapy is getting to him, it's Monday to Friday every day but it's very effective and will blast the chance of those cells growing back."

Remarkable Daniel, eyeing up his christmas presents stacked under the tree, is looking forward to spending Christmas with his mum and the rest of his family.

Yvonne added: "There are blessings in all of this, it could be far worse.

"It could be that we did not have Chase Farm and I could be sitting here kicking myself if I hadn't had Daniel checked out when I did. I feel very strongly about saving Chase Farm's services. We can't just sit back and allow them to close A&E."