This is Mac the cat, pictured in hospital today, 30th June, his eleventh birthday. He has been a poorly boy for over three and a half years. Having endured a particularly nasty bowel operation three years ago, he has suffered periodical bouts of pancreatitis and diabetes ever since. He also has kidney disease. Dispute this, he is a happy boy living his life to the full when his health allows.

Mac nearly died this past week. He suffered a sudden and severe bout of pancreatitis, and this caused his blood glucose to reach 32mmol/l at one point! For perspective, it would more normally be around six. It is not known yet whether this will mean he needs to go back on the twice daily insulin injections he managed to get of off last December. It is still touch and go because of the strain on Mac's kidneys. It looked like the end last Wednesday with Mac's human called to attend quickly and a 'do not resuscitate' arrangement was discussed. Mac fought on though, and although his vet says it's still 50/50, Mac is being given every opportunity to come through yet again and those who know him are confident.

Mac's human is a lovely lady called Ali. She has disabilities of her own so life is always hard, but she never complains about her lot. Her cats are her children, she lives alone with them in sheltered accommodation in Oxfordshire. Ali is a responsible cat mummy, making sure that she has the highest possible level of insurance for her babies, which is far from inexpensive, but it's worth it as she doesn't have much spare income and wants to make full provision for their health needs.

What could not be predicted was the number of separate conditions Ali's cats would becme afflicted with all at once. The insurance excesses for Mac amount to around £300 per year (three conditions), whilst his sister Rosie has one condition, making the minimum of excesses £400 per year for Ali in top of the monthly premiums. She manages all that, and often another excess or two in addition. This year, so far, she has paid five excesses because Rosie had to have a benign growth removed from her throat which was delicate enough to require a specialist surgeon.

All of that is okay, but now Mac and Rosie are both over ten years old, Ali has to pay an additional 20% of the medical bills on top of the usual excesses. Even that would be okay in reasonable frequency, but in the past six weeks with Rosie's operation (with scans and all the usual additional costs) and Mac's prolonged hospital stay, Ali has costs of £1350. Six hundred of that alone is the total to date for Mac's stay and it is of course increasing daily with no idea what the final total will be . None of this includes the regular excesses or other treatment twenty percent additional excess costs accrued earlier in the year. On top of all that, Ali has to rely on local taxis most of the time to get to and from the vets. Recent events have necessitated daily trips.

Ali's friends have rallied round as much as possible to help with the additional excesses but many live on a pension and it's hardly made a dent. She has no idea we are putting up a request for help. Goodness knows what she will say, she is a very private lady , but she has made every possible provision for these events and the reality is they have come one after another at a rate no reasonable person would expect or be able to prepare for.

We don't know what sort of response to expect to our plea to help Ali, so we have no expectancy. I suddenly remembered a lady in the US had to ask for help when her beloved dog contracted cancer some years back, so I thought maybe someone out there might consider helping Ali. She would never ask herself, even for her cats, but she will not let them down, ever. She undertook to look after them no matter what when she took them on and she will do just that. Her friends fear it will leave her in financial difficulty. Any amount that you can afford will help reduce the excesses Ali has to pay.

On behalf of Mac and Ali we thank you for your consideration and for taking the time to read this far. We are all quite old and don't really do social media, none of us have Facebook. If you do and would like to help, perhaps you would kindly share this story? Your kindness would be much appreciated.

No matter what the response, we, her friends, will follow up and post updates on Mac. The next week is critical.