A terminally ill boy has seen musicians from across the world fly to play for him after he was given just weeks to live.
Bailey Nixon, eight, was born with a degenerative brain condition which has been slowly killing him since he was a baby.
The disease has led to epilepsy, constant muscle spasms and severe learning disabilities.
It has rendered him so lethargic he sleeps most of the day and struggles to open his eyes unless he’s crying out in pain.
Last week his mother Charlotte, 36, was given the news Bailey would not make it to his ninth birthday on December 11.
She launched an appeal on social media asking for musicians to visit the terminally ill boy at home in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
But she was not prepared for hundreds of offers to pour in from as far as Australia and Bahrain to play for Bailey.
The tale even touched the heart of X-Factor winner Sam Bailey, who cut short a Christmas tradition to travel to the family home and sing for him.
Bailey Nixon (pictured as a baby), eight, was born with a degenerative brain condition which has led to epilepsy, constant muscle spasms and severe learning disabilities
His mother Charlotte (pictured) launched an appeal on social media asking for musicians to visit the terminally ill boy after he was given weeks to live
The tale touched the heart of X-Factor winner Sam Bailey, who cut short a Christmas tradition to travel to the family home and sing for him (shown)
Ms Nixon said: ‘I am so grateful. It has been absolutely beautiful, people have been taking time out of their lives for my son.
‘He loves guitars and I just thought I would see if I could get some music therapy for him… I didn’t think for one minute it would be like this.
‘For anyone to take time out of their lives to help me and my son, it is just amazing, it really is amazing.
‘I have never done anything like this, I have never asked for anything in all of the years he has been alive because that’s not me, that is not who I am, we fend for ourselves.’
The parent said she felt helpless watching her son’s condition deteriorate and decided to launch the appeal ‘off the cuff’ to inject some joy into his life.
His mother added: ‘He is going to die, we are looking at days, maybe a couple of weeks. I can’t change that, there is nothing I can do about that.
‘But while he is here, even if I can do a little bit of something for him, I will. I will do anything.
‘He spends a lot time asleep, they say the last things to go are your hearing and your smell, so I just thought well let’s try and do something.’
Last week doctors said Bailey had just days to live and was unlikely to see his ninth birthday on December 11
The appeal was picked up by local newspapers and online, and since then hundreds of musicians have been in touch.
Ms Nixon said they now have enough people to play for Bailey every day for the next two weeks.
She added: ‘He has been a bit calmer, I know it sounds a bit daft but he has not needed as much pain relief, he is on three hourly morphine but he has not needed as much.
‘The other day he didn’t open his little eyes up once, only to cry for pain relief’. She can be up seven times a night to give her son pain relief, managing just a few hours sleep.
The mother added: ‘I have got no choice, he is my life, he is my boy, everything of me is him.’
The visit from Sam Bailey lifted the whole family and the singer has kept in touch with the family every day since.
Ms Nixon said: ‘It was funny, I opened the front door and she came in and I looked around her, but she didn’t have anyone with her, she’d just come on her own. She was so good.
‘She has messaged me every day since, just asking how the little man is, she has been absolutely brilliant.’
More musicians are due to visit the family home to to play for Bailey this week including Andy Bennett from Ocean Colour Scene and members of Nuneaton band The Speech.
Terminally-ill boy who was diagnosed with dementia at just SIX can no longer recognises his heartbroken mother
A heartbroken mother of a six-year-old with ‘childhood dementia’ fears he no longer recognises his family.
Reece Mitchell has Batten disease, a cruel disorder that slowly robs children of their ability to walk, talk, think and breathe.
The ‘fun-loving’ youngster, from a village near Inverness, has already lost his mobility and speech, and is fed through a tube.
Reece’s mother Donna said his condition, for which there is no cure, has ‘definitely got worse’ this year.
Reece Mitchell has Batten disease, a cruel disorder that slowly robs children of their ability to walk, talk, think and breathe (pictured with his mother Donna)
The ‘fun-loving’ youngster, from a village near Inverness, has already lost his mobility and speech, and is fed through a tube
The 46-year-old added: ‘Originally he knew what was going on and would fall over a lot. But he’d always pick himself up and carry on.
‘Now it’s like looking after a baby in a six-year-old’s body.
‘We not really sure if he recognises us now but the one things that keeps me going is that he can still say “Mamma”.’
Ms Mitchell said: ‘I am living every parent’s worse nightmare. Watching Reece go from a normal wee boy to this is devastating.
‘With Batten disease things can progress and change within weeks, months or years, we just don’t know how long we have left.’
Batten disease is a rare genetically-inherited disease, caused by waste build-up in the cells which creates neurodegnerative effects.