Olive Downie Appeal - Please Help

logyon

Not looking for sympathy but thought i share this with locals online


Her Story

You can also donate by text message by texting OLIV95 and your amount £1 - £10 to 70070.

URGENT APPEAL

Olivia's disease has been stubborn, and although the treatment in Germany clearly helped Olivia, it has progressed in other areas of her body. We are running out of options and our last real hope for a cure lies in Sono Photo Dynamic Therapy. Olivia has been accepted onto a course of treatment at a clinic in Mexico, that has years of experience of helping children with Neuroblastoma, including UK children, but we don't have enough funds to cover the costs. Please help us!

UPDATE FROM FAN

Thank you to everyone who has donated over the last few days. Olivia's target now stands at just over £15,000. Olivia has arrived safely in Mexico after a difficult flight and she is resting. Treatment needs to begin as soon as possible this week if Olivia is to have the best chance at survival possible. Please donate generously, or whatever you can, and help us tell everyone about Olivia and her fight for life.
Thank you, from all the team at FAN.

Olivia Downie is a 6 year old girl from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In January 2009, Olivia started complaining of severe backaches and tiredness, she looked very puffy and lethargic, she screamed in sheer agony for weeks and weeks. We could not help her or get any rest. We phoned NHS 24, paid numerous visits to the GP and outpatients department. Then we took Olivia to Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital. They diagnosed cancer within 24 hours and then went onto diagnose Neuroblastoma Stage 4. We were shocked and horrified to the core, devastated..... how could our sweet innocent child have cancer??!

Doctors started Olivia on chemotherapy straight away to shrink the main tumour on her left adrenal gland. The treatments had horrible side effects, such as losing her beautiful blonde hair, violent sickness, loss of appetite, made her tired, confused and angry and gave her gastrionomitus. After chemotherapy, they operated to remove the tumour, which was the size of a grapefruit. Olivia had more chemotherapy to try to rid the bone marrow disease, and then high dose chemo, the hardest of all chemotherapies. Olivia remained unconscious over her 5th birthday on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2009. It was heartbreaking and soul destroying to watch our precious little girl go through all of this. Her dad and I just wanted to take her pain and suffering away, do anything to stop it, but there was nothing we could do, except be there for her. Olivia then had radiotherapy and was sent home for a short break.

Through months of research, we discovered Immunotherapy, a new trial drug available to stop Neuroblastoma in its tracks. The survival rate for Neuroblastoma stands at a terrifying 20%. Unfortunately, Olivia was not eligible for the UK trial. With the help of Olivia's consultant, our local MP and sheer persistence, we got the ok to take Olivia to Germany for Immunotherapy. The local community came together through different fundraising ideas and raised money to help send Olivia for 6 cycles of treatment. All seemed well, until scans performed at Olivia's 4th cycle discovered 2 new tumours. This was a huge setback for Olivia, and we are terrified ot this relapse to say the least. Now Germany have started Olivia on a new chemotherapy called RIST along with pills called inhibitors. This method will be used until the 2 tumours found in the top of her spine and behind her breastbone shrink along with the cancer which remains in her pelvis and shoulder bones. After this, Olivia will have operations to remove the beast of a disease left behind. Hopefully, if all goes to plan, Germany will then perform a treatment which involves myself or my husbands stem cells being removed, so they can be given to Olivia in the hope of building a healthier, more efficient immune system so the body will be better at rejecting cancer.


All this treatment comes with substantial costs, which is a huge burden on us. Thankfully, we have secured some funding from a charity to pay for the RIST drugs. This has bought us some time, however, we still need to keep fundraising for everything else Olivia needs now, and what she might need in the future. We have learned the hard way that this disease can and does throw a spanner in the works and we know all too well how having access to money is essential to pay for whatever she needs.


Please help us to make this life line available to us. Ask yourself, what would you do? WE CANNOT give up on our daughter! PLEASE help us to save our daughters life. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!


Donating here is easy or you could donate direct to the Natwest bank. Account Number: 88694275 Sort Code: 55-81-28.


For further details on ways to donate please visit https://www.familiesagainstneuroblastoma.org
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.



Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.


http://www.justgiving.com/olivia-downie-appeal

logyon

Family’s plea for help to get cancer-stricken girl home from Mexico
Fraserburgh family tells of heartache

By Rita Brown
Published: 21/06/2012

COURAGE: Olivia Downie has never complained and keeps smiling.
THE North-east family of a cancer-stricken little girl today said they feared she may lose her fight for life stranded in Mexico.
Brave Olivia Downie flew to Tijuana earlier this month to undergo specialist treatment.

But the bedridden seven-year-old is not responding and doctors have refused permission for her to fly home to Fraserburgh without medical support. They now face the worst-case scenario of having to raise almost £140,000 to get her back to the North-east.


Taken from local paper yesterday = http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/2821337


Mum’s heartache as Olivia Downie put on life support
Bid to fly girl, 7, home from Mexico

By Rita Brown
Published: 22/06/2012


STRUGGLING: Olivia Downie is on life support in Tijuana, Mexico.
A HEARTBROKEN mum today told how her cancer-stricken daughter has been placed on life support.
Fraserburgh mum Lauren Downie said Olivia’s rapid deterioration has made their plea to have her home from Mexico even more urgent.

As revealed in yesterday’s Evening Express, the Downie family are struggling to get seven-year-old Olivia, who flew to Tijuana for specialist treatment, back home.
Thousands of pounds have been donated in just 24 hours in a bid to help the Downies find a way back to the North-east.

To donate, log on to http://www.justgiving.com/olivia-downie-appeal



taken from todays paper = http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/2822984

molerat

http://news.stv.tv/north/107598-family-only-allowed-to-spend-45-minutes-a-day-with-dying-daughter-in-mexico/

diluvsdiscounts

I am switching from a PAYG phone to a contract and I have £9.80 credit. Does anyone know if there are any charges when you donate by text? What I mean is would I donate the whole £9.80 or would some of the amount be a charge?
Hope that makes sense.

SCO

Hope she gets home soon.

vikki_louise

Olivia was flown home on life support on the 27th and passed away 2 days later with her family around her
Www.postpals.co.uk/pals/Olivia+d