Mum Diane slathers the five-year-old in super strength lotion whether it’s raining, snowing or blazing sun, following an amazing medical fight.
The Spider-Man-daft youngster fought off a rare and deadly condition thanks to a stranger’s stem cell donation.
But the high dose of chemotherapy he needed to give him a chance against the “one in a million” condition called aplastic anaemia, left a worrying side effect.
It has left Calum’s skin particularly sensitive to the sun’s rays, putting him at high risk of developing secondary cancer.
“It sounds strange to be putting sun cream on him in the middle of winter,” says mum Diane, 39.
“But he needs the cream for at least a year to protect him.
“Like most children he really doesn’t like putting on sun cream, but he’s getting used to it.
“We’re just grateful Calum is doing well after a terrifying time.”
Being smeared with greasy cream is the least of Calum’s worries.
At one point he was so ill parents Diane and Derek, 36, of Livingston, West Lothian, were warned to prepare themselves for the worst.
Thanks to the kindness of a stranger who donated life saving stem cells, Calum battled through.
But it wasn’t easy. On the way he gathered hundreds of “Beads of Courage” – beads given by medical staff after medical procedures – which show just how incredibly far he’s come.
“There’s more than 1,000,” said Diane. “He gets some every time he has something done, like an injection or another test.
“They’ll be something for him to look at one day and see how much he went through.”
Diane and Derek had noticed Calum started suffering nosebleeds.
It was when his energy seemed to fade that alarm bells rang.
Doctors thought it might be leukaemia. But tests showed something much more unusual, a rare and very dangerous blood condition, aplastic anaemia.
It means the bone marrow stops producing red blood cells and slows down production of white cells and platelets.
Nobody knows what causes it and just 30 children a year in the UK are diagnosed with the condition.
In serious cases such as Calum’s, the only hope is a stem cell transplant.
With no brothers or sisters to give the best hope for a match, the search began for a stranger willing to donate stem cells.
Anthony Nolan, the organisation which keeps a register of potential bone marrow and stem cell donors and matches them with patients in need of a transplant, stepped in.
Despite having half a million potential donors on its register, finding an exact match took an agonising four months of searching and involved heading overseas.
Eventually, a donor was found and, within days, Calum was having a lifesaving transplant.
The treatment has revitalised the youngster.
He’s become one of the faces of the Anthony Nolan charity, while Diane has encouraged more than 100 people to sign on the register by speaking at public events.
“Getting his transplant was just the start,” she adds. “It takes a year for the immune system to recover and there are side effects.
“The high dose of chemo wiped out his immune system, so we’ve had to keep a watch on him.”
Usually the amount of chemo given is limited because of the damage it can do to the bone marrow. But as Calum was to receive a stem cell transplant, he was given a high dose.
It’s put him at risk for other cancer – which it’s hoped the layers of sun cream can help prevent.
Diane is now counting the months to the time when she might be able to finally thank Calum’s donor properly.
“Everything is anonymous for two years, then we can ask to be put in touch with the donor,” she says.
“We’ve already sent them a letter telling them they didn’t just save Calum, they saved our whole family.
“It would be lovely to tell them in person.
“We want to show them what their gift has done.”
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