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The family of a young boy who beat cancer have spoken of their bewilderment after a bike they wanted to buy for him on eBay turned up on their doorstep – for free.

Seven-year-old Evan Wells and his brother Corey, 10, raised more than £3,000 through a charity bike ride earlier this year.

The mystery eBay seller contacted by the family somehow knew Evan and his brother loved biking and had the BMX delivered to them completely free.

In September 2010 Evan was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, aged just 18 months.

Dad John said the diagnoses came as a “complete shock” and added: “As a family our lives were turned upside down.”

Evan then faced months of travelling back and forth for chemotherapy, operations, and radiotherapy, with the majority of his treatment carried out in Cardiff – 100 miles away from the family home in Aberystwyth.

As the youngster picked up bugs and infections he needed strong antibiotic treatment, was fed through a tube, and also had to spend a lot of time at Glangwili General Hospital in Carmarthen.

'Always smiling'

After he turned two his family took him to London to begin a special type of radiotherapy which involved having a mould made of his body and having metal wires inserted around the sides of his tumour.

Evan was the youngest child ever to receive this treatment, known as brachytherapy, and it set a precedent as doctors then decided it was possible for younger patients to also undergo it.

John, 34, said: “Evan tackled everything that faced him head-on and always with a smile on his face.”

Evan has now recovered but throughout his treatment the family were supported by Latch, the Welsh Children’s Cancer Charity.

So in May last year the bike-mad brothers decided they would do a charity cycle ride.

They planned a 17-mile route cross-country from Nant-yr-Arian to Machynlleth and did the ride in May this year, raising more than £3,000 for the charity in the process.

John, whose wife Johanna has also recovered from cancer in recent years, said: “The boys made us immensely proud and the response from everybody donating has blown us away – the donations we received were just awesome.

“We count our lucky stars every day that Evan is fit, healthy and happy and is able to carry on with his life as a normal seven-year-old boy.

“He just gets on with it like any normal boy.

“It’s quite emotional, we cannot really describe how we feel – Evan has been through everything.”

Seller full of admiration

As the family returned to normality and donations and support died down something unexpected happened.

John saw a BMX on eBay with a starting bid of around £40 – a price he expected to rise a lot before it was sold.

He intended to come back to the page and bid later but it slipped his mind.

A few days later he came back to the page to find the listing gone.

“On the off-chance I gave the guy who was selling it a message just to see if he would be interested in selling it still – if it hadn’t already gone, that is,” said John.

Later that day the seller, who has so far not been identified, responded asking John for his address.

The seller said he had seen what Evan and brother Corey had done and he was full of admiration.

'Some good people out there'

The seller then told him: “It (the bike) will be outside the front door for you tomorrow.”

John didn’t tell the boys and the family returned home on Wednesday to see the bike sitting close to the front door.

John said seeing the brothers’ surprised faces was “amazing”.

He added: “We have no idea who the individual is other than their eBay user name. Somehow this person knew about Evan’s history and the charity ride.

“The seller told me he was so impressed with the boys and that they had done such an amazing job.”

“For the seller to do this is unbelievable. It shows there are some really good people out there still.”

To donate to Evan and Corey’s fundraising efforts for Latch visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/evanandcoreywells