A girl who battled a rare and aggressive cancer is celebrating her fifth birthday in New York City today.
Rebecca McKenna was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma in January 2018 after complaining of a sore leg.
She’s undergone gruelling treatment including surgery, a stem cell transplant, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Sadly the cancer can often come back so Rebecca’s parents Chris and Vicky, launched the Raise for Rebecca campaign to take her to America for treatment to stop it returning.
The community raised an incredible £240,000 and the family, from Erskine, flew to New York at the end of last month.
They’re looking forward to celebrating her fifth birthday today in the Big Apple with a special trip to see Frozen on Broadway.
Chris said: “We wanted to treat it like a holiday but it was difficult to do that at the start. We were in limbo with the hospital and didn’t have any set appointments.
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“But we’ve settled in New York now and know our way about. We are ten minutes from the hospital, Central Park and Times Square so it’s an ideal location.”
Rebecca is being treated at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre and has undergone a bone marrow biopsy and the first dose of the vaccine. She’ll have three vaccine injections in her leg during this visit, which could take up to six weeks.
Her treatment will continue for the next 12 months with another five injections planned on week-long visits to the city.
So far during the trip, the family have visited Central Park and its funfair and Rebecca has enjoyed a unicorn ice cream from Dylan’s Candy Bar.
Chris, 39, said: “A year past in March I thought we’d probably make about £10,000. We weren’t expecting to raise nearly as much.
“It was an amazing response, absolutely brilliant. All this wouldn’t be happening if everybody hadn’t donated.
“They’ve given my daughter a chance of life and I can’t thank everyone enough for that. There are no words for that.”
