Boy, 9, has testicular tissue frozen in hope of having children

Nathan Crawford becomes first in UK to undergo process, having been diagnosed with brain tumour requiring treatment that risks making him infertile

A nine-year-old boy with a brain tumour has become the first person in the UK to have testicular tissue frozen in the hope that he can have children later in life.

Nathan Crawford has undergone radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink his tumour, which is inoperable, but the treatment could make him infertile. In a groundbreaking procedure, surgeons at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford have removed and frozen a wedge of testicular tissue, with the aim that it is one day re-implanted into Nathan.