Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I am running on behalf of the Robyn Higgins Appeal.  Robyn is a lovely girl who attends St Augustines and is a year above my  daughter, Anna.  Please take the time to read her story below. Thank you. 

In May 2009 when she was just seven years old, Robyn Higgins was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma. The cancer had grown from her pelvis and spread to her bone marrow. Robyn immediately began treatment at the Royal Marsden Hospital, Surrey, where she received nine doses of chemotherapy followed by a surgery to remove the primary tumour.  

Since then, brave Robyn has endured 9 rounds of chemotherapy, a very painful stem cell harvest, 9 hours of surgery to remove the very large primary tumour from her pelvis – which left her unable to walk for 7 months – high dose chemotherapy to eradicate her bone marrow, followed by a stem cell transplant and then 15 rounds of radiotherapy. The next, and what should have been the final stage of Robyn's journey, brought the Higgins family to Philadelphia in America. Thanks to a successful fundraising drive, Robyn was able to receive immunotherapy and a drug called Accutane at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The aim of the therapy was to rid her little body of any the stray lurking cancer cells that cause such massive rates of relapse in Neuroblastoma. 

However, just a year after completing the gruelling treatment, routine scans showed that Robyn had relapsed. Fortunately, Robyn responded really well to three cycles of ‘salvage chemotherapy’ but in the UK, there are no relapse studies or treatment protocols for relapsed neuroblastoma. In Philadelphia and in other hospitals in North America, there are relapsed neuroblastoma treatment protocols offered for Robyn and children like her. Without these options – the outcome for Robyn is unthinkable.

 

Robyn’s mum and dad do not have insurance for health care in America so Robyn's treatment comes at a great cost. Robyn’s mum Lisa said “please, please help us give our delightful, playful, brave, gorgeous, cheeky girl a future by donating in any way you can to Robyn's appeal. Any donation, however large or small, makes a real difference for Robyn. I cannot stress this strongly enough – you really would be helping to save a child’s life.”

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.