Parents’ race to raise £200k by Christmas to help Henry
NEW YORK CLINICAL TRIAL HOPE FOR BRAVE 5-YEAR-OLD BATTLING CANCER
THE parents of a brave five-year-old boy from Nottinghamshire have launched an appeal to raise £200,000 before Christmas to help him beat cancer
Henry Bard, who lives near Lowdham, was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma – an extremely aggressive form of cancer – just before his fourth birthday in 2019.
Henry has had to spend his fourth and fifth birthdays, as well as last Christmas, in hospital fighting the illness. He has had to undergo a sevenhour operation, stem cell harvest and high-dose chemotherapy.
Henry’s parents, Graham and Rachel Bard, have set up a fundraiser to attempt to raise £202,000 to access the Bivalent Vaccine clinical trial at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York as soon as he finishes NHS treatment.
Charity Solving Kids’ Cancer said neuroblastoma returns in almost half of child sufferers and, if that happens, less than one in 10 survive.
Mr Bard, 37, said: “Henry is such a character. He has such a strong stoic attitude – he’s had so much thrown at him and yet he just gets on with it.
“Even in the darkest of times you can still get a thumbs-up or will be lasered by his Buzz Lightyear blaster.”
He continued: “Henry has been through so much in the last 16 months, more than most of us will experience in our lifetime, let alone by the age of five.
“As parents, you feel completely helpless watching them go through aggressive and intense treatment. We just want to do whatever we can to give Henry the best possible chance to beat the cancer and stop it coming back.”
Henry’s parents said the pandemic had made their fundraising efforts much harder. The family went into isolation a week before the first UK lockdown, in order to protect Henry.
Mrs Bard, also 37, said: “It’s been really difficult. We have been very limited and restricted as to what events and activities we can do.
“Our team of supporters have done an absolutely amazing job to raise £70k over this period.
“Sadly though we still have a very long way to go, in a very short amount of time.”
Asked what life had been like selfisolating throughout the pandemic, she said: “Any oncology family will tell you that shielding and isolating is nothing new to them. Throughout treatment Henry had periods where his immune system was compromised.
“For us as a family, lockdown has been amazing. We have been able to watch our little boy rediscover life outside of the hospital and playing with his little brother.”
Henry has previously received well wishes from actor Hugh Grant, who sent Henry a video as his character Phoenix Buchanan from the Paddington movies.
The Bard family have so far raised just over £70,000 and are desperate to reach their £202,000 goal.
Mr Bard added: “We are really hoping that we hit our target by Christmas.
“We want to do whatever we can to help stop this cancer from coming back.”
To visit Henry’s fundraising page, go to www.solvingkidscancer.org.uk/ Appeal/henry.
Donations can also be made by texting HENRYB to 70085 followed by any whole amount up to £20.