Britain's first: Nathan Crawford, pictured, had treatment to ensure he can one day have children

At the age of nine, thoughts of becoming a father are far from Nathan Crawford’s mind.

But he has become the first person in Britain to have an experimental treatment in the hope that he might one day have children.

The schoolboy has an inoperable brain tumour that requires gruelling courses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The vital therapies should shrink the tumour growing in his brain – but could make him infertile.

Now, in a UK-first, surgeons have removed part of his testicular tissue and frozen it in a new facility in Oxford, with the hope of one day re-implanting it when Nathan is old enough, and ready, to be a father.

An estimated 300 children are made infertile every year in Britain as a result of treatments for cancerous and non-cancerous tumours.

The Oxford facility hopes to tackle this problem by providing storage for genetic material, so that girls and boys will later have their fertility restored. Ovarian tissue freezing for girls is in its early stages, but has already produced around 50 live births around the world. For boys, however, testicular tissue freezing is more experimental.

Nathan has a type of tumour called a glioma, which develops from the glial cells that support the nerve cells of the brain. His tumour is so close to vital brain tissue that surgeons are unable to remove it without causing serious damage to important brain functions.

He has had a course of radiotherapy and is currently having a second round of chemotherapy with the aim of shrinking the tumour.

But before he started chemotherapy his family, from Bude, Cornwall, were offered the chance of testicular tissue freezing thanks to pioneering work at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

During keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic, surgeons removed a wedge of testicular tissue from one of Nathan’s testes.

Proud family: Nathan, pictured with his younger brother Ned, mother Donna and stepfather Jonathan at home

Treatment: Nathan, pictured with his brother, had his tissue removed and frozen at a facility in Oxford

This sample contains sperm stem cells, which remain viable when slow-frozen within the small amount of testicular tissue.

Nathan’s stepfather Jonathan Alison, 34, said he and Nathan’s mother, Donna Hunt, 31, have explained the tumour to him and how the procedure to store testicular tissue might help him in later life.

‘Nathan loves children and so we told him this would increase the chances he can have his own children,’ he said.

‘He’s coped really well and hasn’t suffered too much from side-effects, just some jaw ache and a bit of sickness. We couldn’t be prouder of the way he has taken it all in his stride.’

Coping well: Nathan, pictured with his family, has taken the treatment 'in his stride' according to his mother

Men who are to have chemotherapy can freeze their sperm in advance. But boys who have not reached puberty have no sperm.

Instead, by freezing a sample of their testicular tissue, scientists hope to preserve the sperm stem cells – immature sperm which they hope to later defrost and turn into mature sperm.

The final stage of this process has never been successfully carried out in humans, but several trials have succeeded in mice.