Today, 12 mums and dads will receive the news no parent ever wants to hear - your child has cancer.
But because there are only 19 hospitals in the UK best equipped to diagnose and treat young people with cancer, on average, they travel 60-mile round trips to get treatment. That's twice as far as adults with the same illness.
But it gets worse. In the East of England, children with cancer and their families travel on average 90 miles. Families like Esmé's did 105-mile round trips each time she needed to come to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
It costs many families hundreds of pounds each month just to get their children to and from their hospital appointments. Costs like fuel, car parking, car maintenance, train and bus tickets and taxi fares. Many children travel up to 200 times to hospital over a period of two to three years.
Families with no access to a car have to rely on the kindness of a friend or relative. Others have no choice but to take public transport, which can be life-threatening for vulnerable children with compromised immune systems.
If you ask ten families of children with cancer, seven will tell you they need help to pay for the transport to hospital. From those seven families, only one gets the support they need.
We have spoken with over 100 families affected by childhood cancer about the challenges they are facing.
Long car journeys with sick children on chemo are one of the hardest things imaginable. No one can understand the stress involved... unless they're unlucky enough to live through it.
Travelling to and from hospital is expensive. [Our] debts are mounting
The costs of travelling were crippling.
This is the case, day in and day out, up, down and across the UK and in our region here in the East. We need to do better for these families already struggling with a shattering diagnosis of childhood cancer.
Families like Esmé's, who can barely make ends meet and just about scrape by each month.
Families like Seraph's, who juggle full-time work with the care of a very sick child, and rely on the kindness of strangers to get to their appointments at the hospital.
Families like Sidney's, who need to access specialised treatment without risking the life of their child on crowded trains.
With your help, we will take them all there.
Starting in the East of England, we want to provide young people and children with cancer free, net-zero, non-emergency transport to and from their hospital appointments.
Access to the service will mean families no longer have to worry about paying for transport or asking friends and family for a lift. They'll also be able to pre-book or request the service as needed, seven days a week.
Our electric cars will be driven by specially trained staff and will provide the comfort of a spacious family vehicle.
We are looking for an initial funding of £135,000, so we can hire and train a dedicated team, get access to two vehicles and create the service by no later than the end of 2023.
You can find out more about our plan on our website.
Not everyone has easy access to hospital treatment. We are here to help them.
We are a very small volunteer-led charity based in Cambridge. Since 2015, we have offered over 5,600 trips to and from hospital.
You can find more about us at www.pleasetakemethere.org
* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.
