British boy, 6, killed in Portuguese car crash as parents looked on had been battling cancer

Akshay Singh Patwal, six, was in a nine-seater people carrier with six other children and the driver when it overturned on a bend.

His parents, who were travelling behind in another hired people carrier, are understood to have seen the accident on the motorway between Alcochete and Infantado, south of Lisbon.

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Akshay died on the way to hospital. The holidaymakers come from two families who live near each other in Grays, Essex.

All the survivors in the car with Akshay were injured, five of them seriously.

It is believed his two elder half-brothers, Raveen, 14, and Irundeep, 13, were among them.

Police sources said none of the children was wearing seatbelts when the 41-year-old driver-lost control.

Akshay's parents, Sham Patwal, a senior sales executive for a car showroom, and Gurdip Kaur, a dental nurse, are both understood to have been married before.

Neighbours said the couple have a ten-month-old son together as well as Akshay.

One neighbour near the family's £275,000 three-bedroom bungalow said: "It's terrible this has happened because the little boy had been suffering from cancer but I believe he had been getting better."

Another friend said: "It is so awful, Akshay had already been through so much in such a short space of time."

Mother of three Tina Dadds, 33, who used to live next door to the family in Grays added: "Akshay was a lovely little boy. He was always buzzing about smiling. He would play with my kids - he was always very happy."

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And she revealed that he had been in a car crash with his mother Gurdip when he was just a year old.

"Akshay got cancer in his arm a short time later. I think the doctors said it could have been the stress of the crash which caused it.

"But he was getting better. My husband saw Sham recently and asked about his cancer, and Sham said he was doing well."

Vivienne Northall, head teacher of Tudor Court Primary School in Grays where Akshay was a pupil, described him as "an absolute delight to work with".

"He was a very happy little boy who had the biggest smile of any child," she said.

A police source in Portugal said: "We think the driver swerved on a bend and careered off the road as he tried to regain control."