SIX-year-old Finn Martin from Warminster who was diagnosed with leukaemia at age three is one of the stars of a Christmas film launched by Morrisons and it’s charity partner to raise awareness of how children living with cancer can be separated from their family over Christmas time.

In the video made by children’s cancer charity CLIC Sergeant in partnership with Morrisons, 11 children affected by cancer share what they love about Christmas day, including presents, turkey dinner and spending time with their loved ones.

It carries the message that children with cancer don’t always get to share Christmas with their families is because children may be treated far away from home and can’t return from the hospital where they are receiving treatment.

Finn was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and is now in long-term maintenance after receiving chemotherapy.

Families of children with cancer can see their costs rise by up to £600-a-month, according to CLIC Sargent research, and this includes the cost of travel.

The charity aims to help children and their families by providing homes from home, which offer free accommodation close to the hospital.

Finn’s mum, Debbie Martin said: “We were delighted to take part in the film to promote CLIC Sargent and make other parents in their situation aware of the support the charity offers.

“When Finn started his treatment it devastated our financial state.

“Every single bit of our savings was wiped out. Everything gets expensive very quickly. You are paying for fuel and travel straight away.

“Our power bills kept going up. One of the big things was just keeping Finn warm. He was always really cold as a side effect and he was nauseous all of the time and that meant I was doing washing all of the time, and running the tumble dryer seemingly non-stop.”

While Finn was in hospital in Southampton the family were able to stay at a CLIC Sargent home from home to be near him rather than making the two-hour round trip.

They have also been supported by a CLIC Sargent social worker.

Mrs Martin added: “The charity did a lot for us. I honestly don’t think we would’ve survived without CLIC Sargent. Our social worker helped us get a grant which was a huge boost for us. She also helped us with our benefit forms.”

Andy Atkinson, Group Customer and Marketing Director at Morrisons, said: “Keeping families together at Christmas when a child is unwell with cancer is such important work. We wanted to explain that in this film, featuring children helped by CLIC Sargent.”

The video can be watched on YouTube.