HE used to be his parents' brave little soldier but now Kieran Webster, who is battling brain cancer, has a new nickname – Mr Incredible.
For the past 81 weeks, the three-year-old has been in and out of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), receiving regular chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumour that has been growing inside his brain.
However, on December 10, a fortnight before his fourth birthday on Christmas Eve, his chemo will come to an end, thus bringing a difficult chapter in his life and that of his family to a close.
Besides the drugs, Kieran has gone under the knife four times since he was diagnosed with optic pathway glioma in April 2011.
It is likely he will require radiotherapy treatment in the future, yet for his parents Emily and Steve, this Christmas will undoubtedly be one to celebrate after the trials and tribulations of the past 20 months.
Mrs Webster, 28, of Trinity Road, Billericay, told the Gazette: "Kieran is just amazing the way he bounces back after his treatment.
"He has been so strong and so brave throughout the whole process and we are now looking forward to being able to get some normality back in our lives."
In September, Kieran began attending Little Achievers Montessori Pre-School in Church Street, Great Burstead and, as his mum explained, he's having a whale of a time.
Mrs Webster, a part-time HR advisor, said: "He has a special friend at pre-school called Poppy and when he was last in hospital the children there rang him to ask when he was going to come back to pre-school and play with the tractor outside."
The mum-of-two added: "We used to call him our brave little soldier but now he is Mr Incredible because less than a week after he had his latest surgery in October he requested to go back to pre-school."
Meanwhile dad Steve, a 28-year-old warranty adviser at Aston Martin Brentwood, said: "Kieran has suffered problems with his sight as a result of the tumour but his sense of hearing in particular appears to have improved significantly in order to compensate for his visual impairment.
"He will hear my phone go or an email notification on the computer before we ever do," said Mrs Webster, who also has a one-year-old son called Blake.
"He relies on his hearing and as a result it is regularly monitored to make sure the chemotherapy drugs don't have an adverse effect."
Since Kieran was first diagnosed, there has been no shortage of people prepared to help him and his family however they can.
Indeed, a community fundraising event held at the Knights Way Centre in Brentwood in September 2011 raised an impressive £4,000 for GOSH.
Mrs Webster said: "Lots of people have made the situation a lot easier to deal with from helping us with washing, cooking and taking Blake off our hands.
"We also want to thank everyone who donated to GOSH at our fundraiser – we are eternally grateful."
