Couple raffle home to help charity after girl’s cancer battle
FAMILY’S £185,000 HOUSE ON OFFER TO LUCKY WINNER
A COUPLE are raffling their house to raise money to help in the fight against a rare form of cancer which their little girl overcame.
Samantha Wilkinson had only recently given birth to her son when she found out her daughter had Neuroblastoma.
Little Oonagh was just 19 months old when she was transferred to oncology at Manchester Royal Children Children’s hospital for tests, after showing symptoms that her parents assumed was a bug picked up from nursery.
After four months of procedures, tests and scans, as well as surgery to remove two tumours, Samantha and partner Steven learnt their baby girl, the second of their three children, had cancer.
Neuroblastoma is a rare type of cancer that affects around 100 children in the UK each year.
Now, Samantha, a stay at home mum and Steven, a business development manager for a fire protection company, are raffling off their Lake District home in order to start again in the UK after living in Spain for two
years. They are pledging a minimum donation of £40,000 to Neuroblastoma UK if they can sell all the tickets.
“We are thankful for Oonagh and part of the reason for doing this is to give back and currently there’s no government funding into childhood cancer research and the pandemic has affected everybody and charities like Neuroblastoma UK who are a small, national charity,” Samantha explained.
Now three, Oonagh has scans and check-ups every three months in Manchester and has now been clear of cancer for two years.
Samantha said: “We don’t live in the house because we’re still in Spain but we bought the house, because of everything that happened with Oonagh and we had nowhere to live, we had to try find somewhere to live after she was diagnosed for that interim period.”
As well as the house, all legal costs and stamp duty will be covered and the raffle winner will also get £5,000 cash. The house up for grabs is a stonefronted terrace in Ulverston, South Lakes, and is valued at £185,000. The two-bedroom property has recently been fully refurbished.
Tickets for the raffle are £2.50.
● More information can be found at raffall.com and search for ‘The Wilkinson Family’