THE family of a brave teen who battled cancer 'every step of the way' paid tribute to him and thanked his friends for organising a charity football match in his memory.

 

Mum Angie Thomson, 50, said she was "beyond overwhelmed" at all the efforts of son Dylan's friends and said she wouldn't have made it without them.

Dylan, 16, lost a two year battle with a rare bone cancer last month and dozens of friends piled his school high with flowers, let off 200 Chinese lanterns in his memory and organised tomorrow's (TUES) match to raise hundreds of pounds for Clic Sargent.

Angie said: "I didn't realise he was loved as much as he was.

"I can't express how much I feel about the boys doing it all. They've been wonderful.

"If they hadn't done what they have, I would have taken to my bed. I can't do enough to thank them."

Dylan was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma - a bone cancer that affects mainly teenagers - after going to see the doctor with what his family thought was a groin strain.

Angie said: "He was playing for Tower Hearts but the 'groin strain' didn't go away."

The Bannerman High school pupil was eventually referred to a bone specialist and given a scan.

Angie said: "They asked us to go to the fracture clinic. We never thought anything of it, we thought he'd broken a bone."

Then, on September 19 2012, the Baillieston family was given the life-changing news that he had cancer in his pelvic bone which had travelled up to his lungs.

Dylan - who Angie said "fought strong and hard" all the way - was given chemotherapy and radiotherapy, blasting the tumour on his hip.

He was determined to carry on going to school, she said, and just last month had been talking about it.

"If there was any chance at all, he just wanted to go to school," she said.

"He did a year of school in about two years and passed most of his exams."

After more than a year, Dylan, of Springcroft Wynd, went into remission.

Then, six months later, the doctor called him in for a CT scan because "he hadn't done one for a while."

Angie said: "It had come back. It was in his lungs and around his heart."

But the football-mad teenager, who supported Rangers and played for Tower Hearts and East End Thistle, was determined to carry on as before, playing computer games and selling on eBay.

He enjoyed a day in Manchester with dad Kenny, 59, meeting his football hero Sergio Aguero, who presented him with a signed jersey.

He was "over the moon," Kenny said. "He always spoke about it."

Dylan never lost hope and searched the internet for alternative medicines.

"We knew it was a gamble," Angie said.

"After the news it had returned last October, they told us there was nothing else they could do.

"Dylan knew that. He fought that.

"We were sitting crying. He just took it in his stride."

His resilience and determination to carry on, always putting others before himself, touched his friends and inspired them to organise the match.

His brothers Lee, 21, and Jamie, 25, are captains of the opposing teams.

Lifelong friend Connor Glynn, 16, who knew him since primary school, said: "It was the least we could do, he changed all our lives.

"He was cheeky, but you couldn't hate him."

"He has always been the same. He knew what he wanted, but not in a bad way."

Steven Bain, 17, met Dylan through Facebook after he had been diagnosed.

He said they had quickly become best friends.

"Apart from his appearance, you wouldn't know he was ill," he said. "He never got down about it."

Alan Stevenson, 17, added: "He never once complained. All he said was he maybe just a bit tired.

"No one ever heard him complain."

Dylan died on January 14 and, the next day, the school "felt like it was silenced", his friends said.

Flowers quickly piled up, from pupils in every year.

Angie said it was an "incredible" sight.

A few days later, what started as an impromptu gathering to release Chinese lanterns saw 200 people turn out.

"It was mental," Steven said. "It started out on Facebook. Everyone gathered in a circle then Angie and the family came."

Around 400 people are expected at tomorrow's match, with tickets sold to raise money for Clic Sargent, plus a raffle and memorial programme.

Dylan's friends, who have raised more than £600, have printed T-shirts with his photo on for the teams to wear, which touched Angie enormously.

"It's going to be an emotional day," she said

"What these boys have done, I can't begin to say."

Rachael McLean, fundraising manager with Clic Sargent in Glasgow, said: "We are very touched that pupils from Bannerman High School have organised this charity football match in memory of Dylan.

"We really appreciate all the hard work and generosity that has gone in to raising vital funds for CLIC Sargent, the children's cancer charity which supported Dylan and his family.

"Currently CLIC Sargent can only help two out of three young people that need us. Every penny raised will help provide vital support for even more children and young people with cancer, and their families."

Anyone who makes a donation in memory of Dylan is asked to include his name or the code E4YDTM  at  www.clicsargent.co.uk.