In July 2024, at just 4 years old Poppy was diagnosed with Stage 4 high-risk Neuroblastoma -a rare and aggressive cancer with heartbreakingly low survival rates. Staying at 4 different hospitals, she underwent 14 rounds of chemotherapy, 2 rounds of high-dose radiation, 6 hour surgery to remove the main tumour in her chest, high-dose chemotherapy followed by stem-cell transplant, 14 rounds of radiation to her chest and 10 rounds of immunotherapy. During this time she received countless blood and platelet transfusions, spent many weeks in isolation and endured horrendous side-effects. Throughout her treatment, the thought of visiting Disneyland was a dream that kept her going. Even at her darkest times, she would still remind us that she wanted to go to Disneyland when the nightmare was over! Finally, against all odds Poppy finished her treatment in October 2024, and after 2.5 years was finally able to ring the bell to signify the end of that chapter of her life. Now she is well in herself, she would love to make that Disney dream a reality. We had initially wanted to go to Disneyland in Paris, but we have recently been offered a rare opportunity to go to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. This would kindly be arranged by a Children's cancer charity. The trip would include - 7 nights staying in a resort at Disneyworld purely for children who are or have been seriously ill, all meals and snacks, park tickets for the whole family for all 4 Disneyworld parks, VIP passes (to skip the queues and have priority when meeting characters), tickets to SeaWorld and a photo pass. Following this, the charity have also offered us free use of their private villa for a week located just south of Orlando, which has a swimming pool. As you can tell, this really would be the trip of a lifetime for Poppy, and for all of us a family. We would need to pay for our flights and car hire (for the second week in the villa). The charity resort (Give Kids the World) also ask for a $1000 (approx. £770) for families to stay, but this has to come from third party funds (ie. donations). Andy Whyte kindly organised a fundraiser for Poppy to visit Disneyland when she was initially diagnosed. We are extremely grateful to him and to everyone who donated and it will certainly go a fair way to covering some of these costs. However, we would still require some more funds to cover the cost of our flights (approx. £2,000). We hate to ask for money, especially during these tough financial times but we wouldn't be able to afford to go any other way. We are hoping to go later this year - to mark 1 year since Poppy finished treatment. Please share far and wide, and donate if you feel able to. Please help us to give Poppy the holiday of a lifetime that she so deserves, and to make her Disney dream a reality. Thank you.
Artículos relacionados
