The urgency of Ollie's operation has meant that we have had to take on considerable debt. Here is Ollie's story...

Ollie is 18 and was an apprentice footballer at MK Dons having been signed when he was U13. During one training session back in February, when Ollie had been doing a lot of headers, he noticed that something didn't feel right with his vision. Ollie thought nothing of this until a couple of days later when he noticed that he was developing double vision when looking extreme right and left. The club immediately arranged an MRI scan and this is when we heard the devastating news that Ollie has a brain tumour.

The tumour is situated in the centre of Ollie's brain. In order to discover the type of tumour, a biopsy is required but this procedure is extremely risky. For this reason we, as a family, decided to delay surgery and explore other options. We spent lockdown looking for alternative treatments, but also despairing as to know what is the right thing to do for Ollie.

A chance conversation with a dear friend one day made us seek a second opinion from a private hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. My friend has family connections with the hospital and a member of her family has been treated there. So we sent the scans over and the hospital responded quickly with the news that Ollie's condition is very serious and the tumour must be removed surgically. We researched the hospital and, following conversations with the doctors and the personal recommendation, we decided that Ollie should proceed with the surgery at the Memorial Hospital, Bahcelievler Hastanesi. https://www.memorial.com.tr/en/hospitals/bahcelievler

Everything is moving quickly now. We are flying out to Istanbul on Tuesday, 22 September and the operation should be taking place on Thursday. Ollie has prepared himself that this is the right course of action.

Ollie has always impressed us with his resilience, bravery and positivity throughout his ordeal. One minute he was doing what he loves best - playing football and the next, he is flying to Istanbul for a delicate and dangerous operation which carries many risks. The private treatment is expensive, but we feel that this is the best and ultimately the only way forward. Please give what you can. We are Erika and Gordon (Ollie's mum and dad) and Jerome (Ollie's brother). Thank you.

I will keep you posted.