A brave toddler battling an extremely rare form of brain cancer has been backed by the community of Alexandria, who are gathering vital funds to keep her family together while she receives lifesaving treatment overseas.
Little Rosie Brown, believed to be the only child in Scotland with the particular type of tumour, received the devastating diagnosis on March 26 and now needs specialist treatment unavailable on the NHS.
It is an extremely rare form of cancer which attaches itself to the brain stem.
Rosie’s mum Alex, who has had to give up work to care full-time for the tot, faces travelling to Germany or America - meaning dad Gary and seven-year-old son Rhuari would have to remain in Scotland.
In a big-hearted bid to keep the family together, family friend Amy McAteer has launched a fundraising campaign which has already collected almost £3000.
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“We believe it would not be in the best interests for Alex to go with Rosie herself,” Amy told the Lennox
Herald.
“It would just be too much to handle for the one parent.”
Amy, whose partner Chris Richards is Rosie’s uncle, said the diagnosis came as a shock to all the family after Rosie had a serious sickness spell.
She said: “It’s been horrible to watch her go through this.
“Her mum kept taking her to the doctor and then she had a CT scan and found out.
“At that point she was at high risk of having a seizure.
“Before that she was being sick every morning.
“At one point we thought it was lactose intolerance.”
She added: “The NHS staff have been extremely helpful.
“We do not know as of yet where she will go for the treatment.
“It was supposed to go to the Great British board but because the cancer is so rare it has been sent to the European Board.
“We’ve been told the chemotherapy could either not work at all or only keep the cancer at bay for so long and she is too young for radiotherapy - if anything that will be a very last resort.
“They are saying there’s a form of proton beam radiation in America which only targets specific parts of the brain -that’s not available yet on the NHS.”
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As the NHS can only fund the accommodation and flights of one parent — Amy hopes to raise enough to allow dad Gary and Rosie’s brother Rhuari (check) the chance to visit.
She said: “They will be going away for eight weeks at a time. That means they also have to pay for all their living costs including food. It’s going to be quite expensive for them —
hospitals themselves can be quite expensive.
“Her dad will have to stay in work but he wants to go and they do not want to have their wee boy away for so long.
“We want to make enough money for them all to go together.
“We want every penny raised to go towards the family.”
The JustGiving page has now hit £9,382 and Amy has also collected funds from friends and family locally.
She said: “The family are so well liked and it was not a surprise to us that people wanted to help them.
“The kind words from people have meant so much.”
To support Amy’s fundraising drive visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rosiebrown-1?utm_term=72A3mJ53Q
