Parents overwhelmed after £200K target raised to send poorly tot to America for treatment

The parents of a baby girl who set a massive £200,000 fundraising target to help their baby receive pioneering treatment in America for her rare cancer say they have been overwhelmed after the money was raised.
Little Ivy-Louise with parents, Jamie and Kerri-Lee.Little Ivy-Louise with parents, Jamie and Kerri-Lee.
Little Ivy-Louise with parents, Jamie and Kerri-Lee.

Kerri-Lee Gawthorpe and Jamie Wilkinson, of Francis Terrace, Ackworth, were left devastated last year when doctors told them Ivy-Louise, who was just 14 months-old at the time, had neuroblastoma and had only a 50/50 chance of survival.

They set up a fundraising page to help send the youngster to New York for a revolutionary new vaccine, and the cash poured in thanks to thousands of supporters

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Kerri-Lee said: “We never thought we would reach that target, but there’s been a lot fundraising from a lot of people. There are people around the world who have read about what has happened and donated.

Ivy-Louise Wilkinson.Ivy-Louise Wilkinson.
Ivy-Louise Wilkinson.

“The support has been brilliant, we just can’t thank people enough.

“We would not have been able to do it without them.

“I don’t anybody thought we would get to that target, it just seemed unreachable, although it’s what is needed.”

The family’s world was turned on its head in January 2018 when doctors told them Ivy-Louise had a six-centimetre tumour above her adrenal gland, and worse still, it had spread.

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She has since undergone surgery to remove a large part of the tumour, and undergone gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, high-dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Ivy-Louise has responded well and she is currently clear of the neuroblastoma. Kerri-Lee added: “It’s a very positive step, and it’s the best place we can be.

“She is fabulous now, she is even going to nursery, she has just smiled her way through it all.

“You don’t want to see any kid go through that, but we just had to get on with it.”

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With Ivy-Louise’s health improving, the family will be able head to the United States in the coming weeks to receive the special vaccine that has shown through clinical trials to prevent a relapse from neuroblastoma.

She will receive a series of injections over the course of a year.