CHB support for Grace continues
Family bowled over by $11k in pledges
Donations have been flooding in for a Givealittle page set up for 10-year-old Waipukurau girl, Grace Thompson, who is battling a rare type of cancer.
At the end of last week, around 120 donors had pledged more than $11,500 to the page which was set up to raise money for the family while it explores costly treatment options here and overseas for Grace, who has adrenal cortical carcinoma, a cancer rarely seen in children.
“The Givealittle page has gone crazy,” said Grace’s mum, Heidi. “Apart from the amazing donations, we have had so many businesses offering supportive services for Grace — for example a personal trainer at the gym and education services while she isn’t at school, and more people offering to put donation boxes on counters and start raffles for us. The support just keeps on coming,” she said.
Heidi said the family was in the process of organising the next phase of Grace’s treatment plan, following news that her daughter would be unable to take part in a drug trial at hospital in Florida in the US, to fight a grapefruit-sized tumour in her abdomen.
“But we are now looking at getting a biopsy of her lump to be sent to the US for genetic sequencing . . . which can be a very useful tool to tailor-make a treatment package for a patient,” Heidi said.
In other positive development closer to home, Heidi said the family was waiting for confirmation from Starship Hospital in Auckland as to whether Grace would be accepted as a patient at a private clinic in Tauranga.
“They have had a 39 per cent success rate treating this cancer in adult patients, but don’t very often treat children. So there are a few issues that they need to go through before we can go ahead.”
The family also wanted to use some of the donations to go on a trip to Australia to create as many memories as possible while Grace was well enough.
In some good news on the holiday front, Heidi said they had been contacted by a Waipukurau builder, who had won a night’s stay in a family room in Napier at a recent fundraiser in CHB, who wanted to donate the prize to the family.
“It’s just awesome,” said Heidi.
■ Donations to the Thompsons can still be made at givealittle.co.nz/cause/graciesgive-a-little