The family raising money for a former Ashby School student suffering from leukaemia say they were 'astounded' to receive a £5,000 donation from footballer Jack Grealish.

A campaign in aid of Dylan Lamb Has also attracted support from Ibstock-based actor Stephen Graham.

Early last year, Dylan was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at the age of just 19.

Now, he needs to go to America for urgent treatment to battle the disease.

But that will cost £1million and there are currently two fundraisers that people can donate to.

Dylan's mother, Kim, has been trying to generate as much attention as possible for the sites, hoping they can reach the target as soon as possible.

It has been made clear that Dylan may only have weeks to live as things stand.

The appeal brought a huge gesture from Manchester City and England player Grealish with his £5,000.

Kim said: "We were astounded!

"The family WhatsApp group blew up.

"Everyone we knew was getting in touch to tell us about it. Dylan's friends were over the moon too, it really gave us all a massive boost.

"We were delighted that he shared Dylan's story on social media, but to have such a huge donation was a shock.

"Having people like Jack, Stephen Graham, Birmingham City Football Club - and their wonderful generous fans, Paddy Doherty to show their support means so much to us.

"Our fundraising has really gained traction thanks to these lovely people and our target of £1,000,000 seems possible.

"We've been getting messages of support and donations from other countries too - Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand - it's just been amazing."

The fundraising pages explain that Dylan was ready to start back at university this September. However, during the past few weeks - nine months into his recovery from a stem cell transplant, Dylan started to suffer with severe back pain and he was given the devastating news that the Leukaemia has returned.

Dylan is currently completing a weekly course of chemotherapy as an outpatient, but he has been told it is not a cure.

There are no clinical trials in this country for his age group – only in paediatrics. 

However, America does have a clinical trial suitable for Dylan, now aged 20.

The message on the fundraising page adds: "Now we are turning to you to ask you to please help us. 

"We need to raise the money as quickly as possible to get Dylan to America for the clinical trial to commence. This disease is aggressive and he will not have years, we are talking weeks, possibly months if we are lucky, if he doesn't have this treatment."

You can donate to fundraising page HERE and find out more about Dylan.

And you can find out more about Freddie Trevelyan's Three Peaks Fundraiser in aid of Dylan HERE.