Ashley Fowle was born on the 23rd of July 1990 in Colchester. His father Andrew, a policeman, and his mother Vivian. Their first child had dided a cot death at three months, but two more children had been born by the time Ashley arrived. Ashley was diagnosed as having hydrocephalus soon after birth and had had special treatment for this for several years by the time a brain tumour was discovered in early 1994. British doctors at Guys Hospital gave him 6 to 12 months to live, but his parents had read in "Reader's Digest" of a New York doctor who had successfully operated on such tumours. An appeal was launched and within two days the public had donated #70,000 to pay for the trip to New York and the surgery. The surgery was completely successful, and on Ashley's 5th birthday in 1995, 9 months after surgery, he appeared on television and in the press celebrating his new lease of life.