Three-year-old cancer patient Leah Xuereb will be setting off on her road to recovery tomorrow when she gets on the flight to the US where she will be operated upon in just over a week.
The parents of the Gozitan girl have booked their flights to take her to Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas where she will undergo life-saving surgery.
“We are very nervous and worried since this is a major operation… But this is what we wanted and we are hopeful.
“No one gives you a guarantee that the operation will be successful. But it has been on others so we hope and we pray,” her mother Zhana told The Times.
Tests on Leah will start when she arrives at the Texas hospital and the operation is scheduled to take place on November 12.
Leah is currently at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where she had been receiving treatment for cancer for the past 15 months.
The toddler has been diagnosed with a yolk-sac tumour, a very rare form of stomach cancer that can only be treated at Anderson Cancer Centre.
No other hospital in the world can provide the combination of localised chemotherapy and surgery that the little girl needs.
Leah’s story has touched the hearts of thousands. She was healthy until she turned two but the girl’s diagnosis changed several times over the past 15 months, until it was established that she had a yolk-sac tumour.
Despite the high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant she received in London, her disease is progressing very fast and recent tests carried showed she was getting worse.
Her Gozitan parents refused to give up so, after applying for sponsorship from the Maltese Government, they decided to take matters into their hands and start collecting funds for the expensive treatment.
In an unexpected turn of events, the day her story was published in The Times, the Maltese Government decided to sponsor Leah’s €245,000 treatment.
Until then her parents had managed to raise €11,000 but following the report in The Times, donations flowed in and in less than a day the amount collected shot up to more than €70,000.
Since the Government pledged its support towards Leah’s surgery, her parents have been waiting to be given a date when their daughter can be operated. However, the complex operation requires the Texas hospital to pull together a team of more than 20 people.
Ms Xuereb yesterday said her daughter’s consultant in London had informed them that she had been contacted by the Texas hospital.
Their flights are booked and Leah and her parents will be setting off tomorrow on a British Airways flight from Heathrow.
“This is what we wanted and what we have been working towards… I just hope this will make Leah better forever,” her mother said.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon, President George Abela and his wife paid a visit to Leah and other Maltese patients who are being treated in London. The visit took place at the convent of the Franciscan nuns of the Sacred Heart where she is living with her family.
The President and his wife will also be visiting the Sutton apartments bought by Puttinu Cares to house the families of children being treated for cancer. They will also visit other hospitals.