When runners line up for this weekend’s Race for Life in Kirkcaldy there will be one little Superman in their midst.
Auchtertool youngster Milo Carter has suffered more in his four years than others face in a lifetime.
Born with three holes in his heart, he is every inch the hero as he now faces a second fight for life battling a rare cancer.
But Milo, who has lost a kidney to the disease, is determined to be well enough to start school after the summer.
Mum Sarah, 36, knows it will be an emotional moment as it’s one she feared might never come.
She said: “He’s unbelievable and has responded amazingly well to everything that’s been thrown at him.”
At just 72 hours old, Milo went in to heart failure and was rushed to Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow where he endured a nine-hour operation.
Sarah said the first week after the operation was awful as several attempts were made to get Milo off a ventilator.
“But we got through it and after we finally got home Milo did really well,” she said.
“It never entered our heads that at just three, Milo would have to go through a second life-threatening problem totally unrelated to the first.”
That’s why it was a hammer blow when just months after brother Noah was born, Milo’s appetite vanished and he became permanently exhausted.
He was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour, a rare and aggressive cancer in both kidneys which had already spread to his lungs and liver.
Milo’s right kidney was twice normal size and he had three tumours in his second kidney and in the main vein leading up to his heart.
He started on chemotherapy straight away.
At first they were warned that Milo may need to have both kidneys removed facing a lifetime on dialysis or a transplant.
But Great Ormond Street Hospital surgeon Imran Mushtaq succeeded in saving 90% of Milo’s right kidney.
Now Milo and Sarah will line up on the start line of the Race for Life this Sunday with a 50-strong team from Lochgelly’s Sunflower Nursery to raise lifesaving cash for Cancer Research UK.
Find out more at raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org.