Parents raise thousands for sick son's Singapore treatment
The parents of a five-year-old boy from Worcester have exceeded their £500,000 fundraising target for treatment that could help save their son's life.
Oscar Saxelby-Lee has T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which is difficult to treat. He had a transplant in May this year (2019) after thousands across the UK signed-up to a register to try and help him find a donor.
He was briefly cancer-free, but now the cancer has returned.
The family then became aware of an overseas trial called CAR-T in Singapore.
With the cost of treatment, travel and insurance to cover, his parents Olivia Saxelby and Jamie Lee then began fundraising in order to give their son a chance - and say they've now raised more than their actual target.
At the time of writing (November 2019) they have raised just over £644,000 of their £500,000 goal.
They say on their fundraising page that the "support that we have received has been incredible."
"We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has helped fundraise for Oscar in any way."
They also say any additional funds from their original target will be "a small contingency for further treatment if he has a more complicated recovery," and that "all additional funds raised" beyond this will "be used to fund research into childhood cancers."
The family are now in Singapore for Oscar's treatment, and in a recent Facebook post the family say that Oscar has undergone "a bone marrow aspiration under sedation". They're now waiting on the results of this.
In another post on Facebook the family also said that their "hearts are in [their] mouths, emotions higher than ever..... but we are doing this!"
"THANK YOU for this chance ??❤️??"
For more information on stem cell donation visit: https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/what-we-do/transplantation-services/stem-cells/.
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