Supporters of Alfie Evans gather in Leeds

There's been support in Leeds this lunchtime for the parents of seriously ill toddler Alfie Evans.

Author: Ellie KumarPublished 16th Apr 2018

There's been support in Leeds this lunchtime for the parents of seriously ill toddler Alfie Evans.

His parents are launching yet another legal challenge today against a court ruling that the toddlers life support should be withdrawn.

It's lead to protests over the last few nights outside the Liverpool hospital where Alfie is being cared for - where Doctors think treatment should stop.

Keeley's been out on Kirkstall Road and has told us why she's there:

"We can't even begin to think what they're going through, we've got children, we're lucky, our children are well,

"They're 20 and 21 years old those parents, they're so strong

"I don't know what we'd do if it were our children - we'd just hope we'd get the backing they're getting.

Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, are due to ask Court of Appeal judges to allow their son Alfie to continue to receive treatment.

The couple, have already lost fights in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

In February, Mr Justice Hayden ruled that doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool could stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents following hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.

Specialists at Alder Hey said life-support treatment should stop and Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed that further treatment was futile.

Court of Appeal judges upheld his ruling.

Supreme Court justices and European Court of Human Rights judges have refused to intervene.

Judges have heard that Alfie, born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state'' and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors had not definitively diagnosed.

Alfie's parents have complained that "the State'' is wrongly interfering with their parental choice.

They want to move Alfie to a hospital in Rome or Germany.