Tuesday 18 June 2013

Taking it to heart?

This one is possibly abit odd for me to write, possibly even more worse for me to try and word exactly how i feel, yet as i sit here with gritted teeth, i can only think of how much i would like to see other people in the situation i'm about to tell you, just to see what they would do, when others did their actions against them.... If that didn't make sense, don't worry it will soon.

Last christmas (2012) 19 month old Millie-Rose Heaton was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma.

Wiki describes it as....

"
Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid cancer in childhood and the most common cancer in infancy, with an annual incidence of about six hundred and fifty cases per year in the U.S., and a hundred cases per year in the U.K. Nearly half of neuroblastoma cases occur in children younger than two years. It is a neuroendocrine tumor, arising from any neural crest element of the sympathetic nervous system (S.N.S.). It most frequently originates in one of the adrenal glands, but can also develop in nerve tissues in the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis.
Neuroblastoma is one of the few human malignancies known to demonstrate spontaneous regression from an undifferentiated state to a completely benign cellular appearance. It is a disease exhibiting extreme heterogeneity, and is stratified into three risk categories: low, intermediate, and high risk. Low-risk disease is most common in infants and good outcomes are common with observation only or surgery, whereas high-risk disease is difficult to treat successfully even with the most intensive multi-modal therapies available.
Esthesioneuroblastoma, also known as olfactory neuroblastoma, is believed to arise from the olfactory epithelium and its classification remains controversial. However, since it is not a sympathetic nervous system malignancy, esthesioneuroblastoma is a distinct clinical entity and is not to be confused with neuroblastoma."

Basically it's a stupidly agressive form of cancer, which from what i'm able to tell isn't great for being survived... espcially when relapse occours.

The Heaton family since this news have been doing what they can to try and get Millie the best medical care that she can have, which is how they have come across a proceedure in Germany, which should help Millie beat it. With this though comes a cost, infact, a BIG cost. Since finding out about the treatment in Germany, the family and friends have been raising what money they can, with some people digging very deep indeed.

At the bottom i will link the facebook page for Millie-Rose so you can all go and donate if you want to, or find out info about any events which are taking place.

However, this is not where my problem lies.

Several times now friends and family have posted on facebook to say about certain rumour's that are going around the town, which could possibly stop people from donating to the cause. I'm here to say it stops. Now.

Now we're in June of 2013 and Millie has literally just turned two years old and is trying her best to battle a killer. People around this community seem to have nothing better to do than to try and bad mouth not only the fund raising work that the people are doing, but to try and create some drama. I can confirm that the money raised goes into a seperate bank account, to which, the family will only be withdrawing from to pay for the operation itself.

The family, are trying to carry on as normal under these circumstances, still trying to keep their other children happy, while their sister does battle. This does include going out for meals, days out etc, trying to make the most of their time together. Yet still, some people turn around and say pathetic things like "Oh they went out and had a meal, that was paid for by all the money being raised" or "Its not an official charity" etc.

My current understanding of the charity system is that Millie can only be classed as a cause, not a charity... when it comes to fund-raising that is. Certain business' within the local area have already refused to help host fund-raising events because there's no charity numbers that can be given, which is fine, they're entitled to do so, but it does speak volumes about that company and how much they're really wanting to help Millie's family when it comes to money.

Other people who start saying all of this rubbish, or who pass it on, are also adding to the problem, so let me put it into simple terms.

Medical treatment for Millie will not be around forever. The uk's NHS cannot do the proceedure which from what i can gather, is only available in germany at the moment. We literally are down to month's to try and raise the money needed and we are not making huge amounts of progress, although the hope is still there that we will.

I can only hope that the people who are creating these rumour's are faced with a dilemma like the Heaton family are, let others spread rumours about them... see how much they like it then.

Some people are shameful.

However, on a more positive note.... Please click here for Millie's facebook page.

Thank you for reading.

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