The parents of a toddler seriously ill with a rare form of cancer have just 15 days to raise €162,000 to take her to America for a life-saving operation.
Two-year-old Sophie Roberts was diagnosed with a rare form of liver and lung cancer called hepatoblastoma in June last year and her parents were told she had only a 30 per cent chance of survival.
After seven rounds of chemotherapy and liver and lung surgery, the cancer was found to have returned aggressively throughout her lungs. Doctors have told Sophie’s parents the only way to save their daughter is ground-breaking surgery at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre but at a cost of €286,000.
Family and friends have already raised €124,000 and Mr and Mrs Roberts have remortgaged their own home in Hampshire. But the couple now need an extra £130,000 in less than three weeks.
Mrs Roberts, said: “The best option for Sophie is surgery. Two UK surgery teams have refused to operate at this time but luckily a team in New York has agreed to offer her this life-saving surgery.
“It has to be privately funded, so we are asking for help with raising this money and saving our daughter’s life.”
Sophie’s condition
•Hepatoblastoma is the most common liver cancer in children, although it is relatively uncommon compared with other solid tumours in the paediatric age group.
• Over the past several years, pathologic variations of hepatoblastoma have been identified, and techniques for establishing the diagnosis of childhood hepatic tumours have improved.
• Surgical techniques and adjuvant chemotherapy have markedly improved the prognosis of children with hepatoblastoma.
• Complete surgical resection of the tumour at diagnosis, followed by chemotherapy, is associated with 100 per cent survival rates, but the outlook remains poor in children with residual disease after initial resection, even if they receive aggressive therapy.
A dedicated website has been set: www.justgiving.com/SophieRobertsStory.