A BRAVE Rosyth schoolboy who battled cancer has returned “inspired” after a holiday of a lifetime to Florida.

In October, the Press told you about eight-year-old Ben Harnwell, of Boyle Drive, leaving for 10 fun-filled days in Orlando with children’s charity Dreamflight, visiting Universal Studios, SeaWorld and Disney World.

Dreamflight offers trips to seriously ill or disabled children and every year takes 192 kids, accompanied by medical carers on a dream holiday.

The trip came at a “perfect” time for Camdean Primary pupil Ben, who was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2011 – and he’s now returned a more confident child.

He told the Press, “It was good! My favourite part was SeaWorld – I got to see the killer whale.

“I also liked Summit Plummet at Disney World, it’s one of the biggest water slides in the world. I wasn’t scared – I went twice!

“The flight felt short but coming back felt quite long. I made a lot of friends and I will never forget it.” The Press also told you how Ben lost his hair and put on weight due to intensive chemotherapy and a cocktail of drugs, lost his confidence and chose not to talk.

But his parents Tom and Michelle have started seeing the impact of the trip on their son.

Michelle (42) laughed, “He’s much louder! We need to calm him down a wee bit but he’s got a new confidence.

“He went on all these rollercoasters – I thought he’d be terrified but it seemed the bigger, the better!

“They got a Donald Duck T-shirt every day they were there and he’s worn that every day he’s been back!

“He’s never going to forget this. We would never have been able to give him those memories.

“He saw that he had the freedom to express himself without me mollycoddling him – it’s not often that kids get this experience.” She said that the trip has given Ben a boost and he’s slowly coming back to his old bubbly self – he’s already volunteered to do a reading at the Christmas concert of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.

Michelle said, “Going up to do a reading in front of all these people – he wouldn’t have done it a year ago, or even a month ago.

“I was asked if he would do it, and I said I would ask him. Usually he’ll say, ‘No, I can’t’ or ask me a lot of questions, but this time he just said, ‘OK, no problem’.

“He’s very conscious of his weight and he was always asking me if he would go back to what he was before he was diagnosed.

“He used to just stand up and dance but he stopped all of that. He’s very self-conscious, so to stand up and do this is something big.

“The small things are the big things to him, so to go up and help other people is quite inspiring.

“You can just see it in his eyes how special it’s been. He’s gone and achieved something, being with other kids and expressing himself – it’s phenomenal.”