Brendon Thompson-Garland is a little battler. The terminally ill 11-year-old was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007.
Initially, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and drugs arrested the spread of the cancer to the point that he was in remission.
But the disease returned and his family were told it had become incurable.
Brendon has been too ill to attend more than a half-day of school this year, so his classmates and teachers were jubilant when he paid them a visit yesterday.
Brendon and his mother, Mihi Thompson, had been asked to call in to Wanganui East School, but they had no idea what the visit would involve, Miss Thompson said. They found themselves at the centre of the school's attention during an assembly ahead of a Healthy Eating, Healthy Action activity day, which raised money for Brendon's family.