Double blow for Bradley charity
A DEVASTATING DOUBLE BLOW FOR BRADLEY FOUNDATION KIDS
SINCE the Bradley Lowery Foundation was set up in memory of the County Durham lad, it has raised more than £3m and helped send more than 30 children to America for treatment.
But the charity has been struck a devastating double blow due to coronavirus – a 65% drop in donations, and strict new visa requirements which mean children may be unable to complete pioneering treatment.
Bradley’s mum Gemma, 36, of Blackhall Colliery, says the youngsters need to return to New York by the end of June or risk being removed from the scheme.
Her football-mad son melted the nation’s hearts as he fought neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Bradley, six, became pals with Jermain Defoe during the striker’s time at Sunderland.
After Bradley’s death two years ago, Gemma, set up the Bradley Lowery Foundation to help other children fighting the disease.
So far, it has raised more than £3m and helped send more than 30 children to New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The youngsters need to make several trips to receive a bivalent vaccine, which they hope will prevent neuroblastoma returning. But with
Covid-19 wreaking havoc, Gemma said: “Fundraising for families that need to go to the United States has practically stopped.
“Secondly, the children already receiving treatment have not been able to get to New York because of Covid-19. We have to get them there by the end of June or they’ll be kicked off the trial.
“You now need visas to get into the US. We’ve contacted the Foreign Office and US Embassy, but it’s touch-and-go whether we’ll get them there.”
Gemma said there are three children on the vaccine programme and the charity is trying to raise funds for
another three kids to take part. “It’s potentially life-saving treatment,” she said. “We wouldn’t want to put children at risk of having a relapse.
“You have to accept risk with coronavirus, but the higher risk would be if the neuroblastoma returns. Everyone is suffering with Covid-19 but we still need to support our children.
“There will be PPE and procedures for travel.”
A visa waiver scheme the families have previously benefited from is currently suspended, and Gemma has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to intervene. Sedgefield MP Paul Howell has called on the US embassy to help.
Parents of kids already on treatment still hope to go. Cayla Jones, from Cullompton, Devon, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma aged four. Now six, she had eight rounds of chemo and surgery to remove the tumour. She got the all-clear last year and began the vaccine trial in October – but worried mum Enya Gooding fears she could miss the rest of her treatment.
Enya said: “She was due to go on March 28. I’ve got an appointment with the US embassy and hope they fast-track her visa so we can go at the end of June.”
Rebecca McKenna, five, who was told she was cancer-free last March, is due to receive her final vaccination at the end of June. Dad Chris, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, said: “She first went to New York last June and had three vaccines in four weeks. We went back in August, November and February.
“If a child with neuroblastoma relapses, the chances of survival are something like one in 10.
“That’s the fear. We need the full treatment to be sure it works.”