The parents of a six-year-old girl battling a rare cancer have raised £500,000 in just one month to pay for potentially life-saving treatment abroad.
Florence Bark’s world was shattered in May after being diagnosed with a rare form of the blood cancer leukaemia, called acute myeloid leukaemia.
She was first taken to hospital by parents Andrew and Stacey where doctors originally dismissed her symptoms as a chest infection or tonsillitis.
When medics discovered she had cancer, her family were dealt a further blow when they were told Florence required a bone marrow transplant.
If the transplant doesn’t work, Florence’s only chance will be for a pioneering procedure called CAR-T therapy that teaches her own immune system to fight off the disease.
But the NHS won’t pay for the procedure as it not approved in the UK for her type of
cancer, forcing her family to turn to crowdfunding in preparation of getting her the treatment privately in either Singapore or the US.
It is the same treatment that cured Oscar Saxelby-Lee, the British boy who won the nation’s heart after his leukaemia battle went viral in 2018.
Andrew and Stacey launched an appeal to raise £500,000 needed for the therapy and after just 33 days the family have smashed their target.
The family, from Corby, Northants., announced the target had been reached on the fundraising Facebook group called ‘Be More Fab’.
The said: “We are absolutely lost for words. In just 33 days our amazing community has raised 500k for Florence & the Bark family
“We knew that the town would pull together but we cannot believe that so much money has been raised in such a short amount of time.
“We want to thank each and every person who has donated, planned events, attended events, donated raffle prizes and signed up to become donors!”
Despite her condition, the Florence wears a different princess dress every time she goes for chemotherapy.
However, so far the treatment has been unsuccessful in beating the cancer meaning there is a high chance she will need to go abroad for treatment.
Doctors say the Oakley Vale Primary pupil has a rare genetic makeup meaning there is no bone marrow donor match on the existing register.
Medics will now use an umbilical cord for the transplant instead.
The chances of it curing Florence are not high, so it means she may need to seek costly treatment abroad.
Dad Andy, 34, a primary school headteacher, said: “Under normal circumstances Florence’s transplant would take place using a normal bone marrow donor, which is what we had expected.
“However, the rounds of chemotherapy that Florence has had haven’t cleared enough of the cancer in her blood which means that a normal bone marrow donor would have an even slimmer chance of being successful.
“They would normally like a child to undergo a bone marrow transplant with there essentially being no cancer left in her bone marrow, but because there is cancer left
they have said that they will use an umbilical cord for the transplant instead.
“Even after the amazing spike in bone marrow donors, there was no ‘normal’ match for
Florence but they do have an umbilical cord that is a mismatch.”
Andy added that the money is being raised as a “precaution” because there is no certainty that it will be needed.
He said: “The money is being raised for treatment options that aren’t available on the NHS if her transplant fails which we have been told is very likely to be the case.
“If it does fail then we expect her best treatment option to still be CAR T cell therapy but we will not know this until after her transplant.”
If the money is not needed it will remain in the bank until the chances of relapse are gone or may be used to fund her ongoing medical needs.
If it is still not spent then it will be given to another family in need to research acute myeloid leukemia.
Andy added: “We are so grateful for every penny that has been donated and there is no expectation for anyone to donate a penny more but our fundraising pages will remain open even after the target is reached because there is a good chance we may need more.
“No donation is ever wasted, every penny will be doing something amazing.”