Fundraiser to send daughter of ex-footballer to Singapore for leukaemia treatment hits £1 million target in just 16 hours
A fundraiser to support the daughter of former footballer and Ex On The Beach star Ashley Cain has reached its £1 million target in just 16 hours.
Cain had been raising money for his daughter, Azaylia Diamond Cain, in the hopes of getting her specialist cancer treatment in Singapore.
Seven-month-old Azaylia was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia when she was just eight weeks old.
After a successful bone marrow transplant, she had relapsed and the leukaemia returned aggressively, Cain told his Instagram followers on Saturday.
He set up a Gofundme crowdfunding page, telling donors he needed to raise more than £1m to cover the costs of treatment and accommodation in Singapore, after doctors told him and his partner Safiyya that it was the only chance they had to save their daughter’s life.
Alongside the appeal, he posted: “We don’t have time on our side and we may have to fly out within a matter of weeks.”
He said an initial deposit of
£500,000 was needed to be accepted into the hospital and on to the programme.
By yesterday afternoon, the £1m target had been reached. Among the 74,000plus people to donate were reality TV faces Molly-mae Hague and Maura Higgins, as well as Scottish footballers Barry Bannan and Robert Snodgrass.
Doctors told the couple that chemotherapy would not be enough to cure her. In Singapore, she could receive CART treatment, a type of immunotherapy.
In November, the couple made a plea for people to register as a stem cell donor after being told their daughter required such a transplant, which led to 41,000 people applying within 48 hours.
He said: “We are on our knees asking for help to get us to Singapore. Please help us to save our beautiful daughter Azaylia, she has inspired not only us as her parents but so many other people around the world.
“If you have been following our journey you can see that she shows us all everyday how much she loves life and wants to be here.
“We’ve spent the first seven months of parenthood in hospital under Covid restrictions fighting a battle that no parent should ever have to face.”