13-year-old Jamie Green was diagnosed in July after being sick for weeks and being given anti-biotics by GPs. Then doctors found he had a brain tumor called medulloblastoma.
Revolutionary proton treatment could be the answer, as a less aggressive form of radiation, that will give him the chance to continue to live with little damage to his organs, tissue or bone structure.
Unfortunately, the use of proton therapy is relatively new, and while the NHS recognizes its benefits, the UK’s treatment centers are not due to be completed until at least 2016. Luckily, several proton treatment facilities in the USA could take care of Jamie, but as such treatment must be paid for in advance and the NHS is unable to fund it, Jamie’s family needs to raise enough money to be able to send him there and save his life.
Jamie’s dad, Steve Purvey, said: “The treatment comes in like a sword. So where they radiate the spine and the brain, it actually has collateral damage on every other organ. Whereas proton, when it comes into the body, it stops within two millimetres. So it actually irradiates the whole of the target area but has no collateral damage”
The family need to raise almost £250,000 for the treatment alone and will fly out on 25th October. Steve says the response has been amazing: “We had somebody drop a cheque through the door last night of a thousand pounds and it restores your faith in humanity in the way that people has actually responded and turned around.”
Kids‘n’Cancer has given the family a donation of £50,000 and altogether £107,000 has been raised so far. However, the family hopes to raise enough money to give back the money donated by Kids‘n’Cancer so it can benefit another cancer sufferer in the future.
You can find out more about Jamie’s story and donate by going to his website here: http://www.jamiesfund.com/
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