Race for jab cash for sick Nellie, 4
A FOUR- year- old girl diagnosed with stage- four cancer two days before the first lockdown may not get the treatment she needs because of the pandemic. Nellie- Rose Culleton is having tough treatment for neuroblastoma, a rare type affecting around 100 UK children each year.
Even when her treatment ends in the spring, her family know there is a high chance the cancer could return – leaving her with a less than 10 per cent chance of survival.
Nellie- Rose’s parents Leighann Lynes and Gavin Culleton are desperate to take her to New York for a potentially life- saving vaccine that could stop it coming back. However the treatment costs £ 230,000 and the pandemic has severely restricted fundraising efforts. Leighann, 28, said learning her daughter had cancer was “devastating”. In the days before, Nellie- Rose had struggled to walk
Loved... with uncle Sean but doctors initially thought it was irritable hip.
However, just as the nation was plunged into lockdown in March, the family learned the truth.
Leighann, of Maidstone, Kent, said: “I sat there and I thought, ‘ Oh my god this is real, this is happening’. Because we were in lockdown I couldn’t see my mum, I couldn’t see my dad. Almost out of nowhere I got this fight feeling.
“I just blocked out everything and focused on making sure that Nellie was going to fight this.”
Chance
The little girl’s treatment is due to finish in May but Leighann knows neuroblastoma carries a high chance of returning, giving her a slim chance of survival.
An experimental vaccine is available at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center costing about £ 230,000. The family have raised £ 42,000.
However, the second England shutdown is hampering the family’s ability to collect money.
Leighann said: “Lockdown is killing hope of being able to reach this because we can’t fundraise, we can’t do bake sales.”
Fundraiser at solvingkidscancer. org. uk/ ellierose