Please Help Vanessa

www.justgiving.com/vanessa-appeal

In Feb 2009, Vanessa, then aged 8, was diagnosed with Stage 4 (High-Risk) Neuroblastoma, a very rare, aggressive and difficult to treat form of childhood cancer. Fewer than 100 children in the UK are diagnosed with neuroblastoma each year, most of which are below the age of 5 and generally have a better prognosis as the older the child is the worse the prognosis is.

Since Feb 09, Vanessa has undergone many different treatments at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, these include; 12 rounds of High Dose Chemotherapy, two 7 hour surgical operations, the removal of one of her kidneys, a stem cell transplant, Radiotherapy, Retinoic Acid treatment and Immunotherapy treatment......all of which was agonising to watch as parents never mind to have to endure as a child!

Having undergone all this difficult and often very painful treatment the fact remained that due to a high relapse rate the long term prognosis for Vanessa's survival remained very poor with less than a 40% survival rate. All the same, Vanessa finished her treatment at Yorkhill Hospital in Aug 2010 and was given the all clear.

In Dec 2011 after routine scans, we were given the devastating news that Vanessa had relapsed. She has many hotspots on the skull, neck, spine, leg & knees. The UK doctors have told us that this time round there is very little chance of survival; "much less than 10%" they said, as we do not have any relapse protocols in the UK. This is due to the Government not investing any money into relapse treatments for this disease. This is a very different story to the United States where there are many relapse protocols and taking her there will dramatically increase her chances of long term survival.

We now find ourselves in the position of urgently having to take Vanessa to the United States for relapse therapy treatment which the NHS will not fund. The treatment Vanessa requires is likely to involve Antibody Therapy and cost in excess of £500,000. Vanessa's latest scan results will be used to determine which therapy is best and this is likely to happen at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Please help us to raise the funds in order to save Vanessa's life.

You can also donate by text message by texting VANY99 and your amount £1 - £10 to 70070.

Every single penny counts, no matter how little.

Thank you for reading and donating

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• vanessa
• vanessa riddle
• neuroblastoma
• justgiving
• sigur ros
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• celtic fans

[ScotsBhoy07]

Spreading the word every day of a very, very special brave girl - "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do." Make THIS donation the one that made the difference... Every single penny counts, no matter how little - Text VANY99 and your amount £1 - £10 to 70070 NOW! ...If Vanessa was your own, you'd want me to do the same...

[oblivionjosh]

who in the name of hell disliked this!!!

Good luck in raising the money, I have already donated some money and I will be trying to raise awareness of this, That poor we girl :(

[oblivionjosh]

who in the name of hell disliked this!!!

[johnhampson7]

My hopes and very best wishes I send to Vanessa and her family. Stay strong wee lassie and fight for all your worth, To mum and Dad worry not you will get the strength you need.

[ryan82339]

get more at stv