A TERMINALLY ill schoolboy has met his heroes after being chosen to go on the holiday of a lifetime.

Liam Greenwood flew out on an all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World last week, on a specially chartered flight for children with terminal or lifethreatening conditions.

The 11-year-old Stanecastle pupil has been diagnosed with Pontocerebellar Hypoplasia (PCH) – a condition caused by mutations in certain genes passed on from parents.

Liam’s mum Claire and dad Martin were dealt the devastating blow of Liam’s illness just weeks after being told their daughter Jessica, 10, also suffers from the rare condition.

Now the Dreghorn couple face losing both their children to the killer disease. But the family received some good news through the summer when they were told Liam had been chosen to fly to Orlando with charity Dreamflight.

Mum Claire said: “Liam has had the time of his life and made new friends, including a wee pal from Beith. He got to swim with dolphins which was the thing he was looking forward to the most.

“He is sharing a room with Scott (from Beith) and they have became very good friends as they have been roommates all week.”

Liam and his pals have been to Discovery Cove Hollywood Studios, Universal Studios, Typhoon Lagoon, Seaworld, NASA and Harry Potter Lands. Claire says although she was apprehensive about Liam going without her or Martin, he couldn’t wait to get there.

She said: “He was so excited, he couldn’t wait to go. As parents we were apprehensive about him going without us, but we had to put our worries and doubts to one side and let him have this chance of a lifetime. Jessica would have gone too, but she was too poorly to travel.”

Dreamflight, which is run by British Airways, took off from Heathrow on Saturday with 200 Very Important Children bound for Florida for the trip of a lifetime.

The children, aged between eight and 14 who come from all corners of the UK, were joined by Paralympic gold-medallist Liz Johnson and a team of volunteers on their very special flight.