A tragic schoolboy sent home by a GP with cream to treat a ‘virus’ has been given just months to live after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Stewart Sheridan, 10, was prescribed the anti-viral treatment by a doctor at Ribblesdale Medical Practice in Bury after suffering persistent nose bleeds.

When his son’s symptoms continued, Michael Sheridan rushed him to nearby Fairfield General Hospital where a CAT scan revealed a tumour.

Brave Stewart has spent nearly two weeks on a ward at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, reports Manchester Evening News.

Doctors say he has just months left to live, with the serious grade three tumour said to be inoperable.

Family: Stewart with his grandmother Carole Sheehan

Stewart, who is heavily sedated, has his dad, his mother Kelly and his grandmother Carole Sheehan by his bedside.

He faces intense radiotherapy sessions at The Christie to shrink the tumour, but medics fear the treatment will only delay the inevitable.

Mr Sheridan, 46, blasted GPs at Riddblesdale practice after he was told his son was suffering from a ‘virus’ and was prescribed a nasal cream to treat the problem.

Days before, Stewart, who attends Fairfield Primary School, was sent home with a bloody nose and dizziness and was suffering hallucinations, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Mr Sheridan says doctors at the Bury practice told him Stewart had ‘excess blood’ when he took him to see a doctor last year after suffering nose bleeds for more than four months.

The dad-of-two, who says he has made a formal complaint to Ribblesdale practice, says he feels like his son’s symptoms should have been picked up.

He said: “The GPs have diagnosed him wrong. We were told he had a virus and the doctor gave me a cream to put up his nostrils.

“We then found out he had a brain tumour. The doctors have got it very wrong."

Heartbreak: The serious grade three tumour said to be inoperable

He added: "The radiotherapy will just shrink it, but the doctors said he has months to live. I asked them if he had years, weeks or days left and they said months.

"We’re all devastated. He’s still out of it, even when he’s awake he doesn’t know what’s going on.

“When they told us, I had to go out of the room, I couldn’t believe it.”

Stewart’s grandmother Ms Sheehan said: “I haven’t slept properly since we found out. I haven’t stopped crying. We’re just hoping for a miracle.”

When contacted by the M.E.N. Ribblesdale Medical Practice refused to comment on Stewart’s case.

NHS England has not received a formal complaint.