Four siblings have begun a quest to raise tens of thousands of pounds to help prolong the life of their terminally ill father “a few more years”.

Reece, Hollie, Hannah and Ryan Williams, need to raise £40,000 to enable their dad, Stephen, to undergo special treatment which will help slow the spread of cancer in his body.

Stephen, 53, from Shalford, was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2011 and has undergone a variety of treatments such as radiotherapy to stop the disease from spreading.

The care given to him by NHS staff had proven successful until last year when it was found he had a tumour the size of a golf ball on his liver.

Having now been told Stephen needs private care to help slow the spread of his cancer, his family have set up a justgiving page to raise some funds.

Stephen will need four courses of treatment each costing £10,000.

Sisters Hollie and Hannah, who both live in Witham, are putting plans together for a charity music concert while brother Reece has organised a sponsored mud race. Reece said: “Dad keeps his cards close to his chest so it was a bit of a growing concern but we didn’t really expect the news.

“Once it sunk in it was quite hard. Obviously we were quite overwhelmed at first when we found out we had to raise £40,000 and did think ‘how are we going to raise that much money’.

“But we just knew we had to do something and its been so busy since that we haven’t really had time to think about it.”

More than £2,000 has already been raised on the justgiving page and Reece’s eight-year-old sister-in-law, Daisy Mears, has herself donated a staggering £500.

Despite not knowing how long their father has to live, the siblings want to hit the £40,000 by the end of the year and they admit they have been overwhelmed by the number of donations already made.

Reece added: “The response from people has been amazing and it shows you how many good people there are out there.

Dad is 100 per cent a kind-hearted, family man to his core and this is something very close to our hearts.

“Once he has had the treatment we are hoping it will stop the cancer spreading and buy him at least a few more years.

“I’m hopeful we can raise the money.”

So far more than £2,000 has been raised.

To make a donation, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/savedaddysticks. The family have also set up a Facebook pages providing updates.

To find out more visit Facebook and search Save Daddy Sticks.