Can you spare £10 to fund urgent surgery for a Syrian child in Istanbul?

For various complicated reasons, we cannot use names or photographs in this story. Our young friend, the 10 year old son of one of our most hard-working knitters, needs urgent surgery to remove a hernia. His mother is a single mother of 3 children, and she supports herself by knitting for our non-profit, Knitstanbul (www.knitstanbul.com). She has learnt Turkish in order to speak to her children's teachers at school, she and though her life is hard, she never ever complains.

We heard that her son was in hospital last week only because she apologised for not being able to deliver the crocheted Hulk dolls to a birthday party in time. The doctor in the Turkish public hospital could not offer her an operation for 3 months so through friends, we found a private doctor in one of Istanbul's top hospitals. Dr B not only saw the patient and his mother, but called in a pediatric surgeon and they spent an hour and a half with them. They then agreed to do the surgery for half the cost, on a scheduled date in 2 weeks.

We need to raise this modest sum - £600 - to cover the operation and have enough left over for medication and travel expenses like taxis. We would love to be able to buy him a shiny exciting present from all of you for being so brave. Any money raised over this amount will go to the boy's mother.

Can we do it???? Just £10 or the price of your Pret a Manger lunch will help! If you donate, please send us a video of you saying "Hamdulilah Assalameh" ("get well soon" in Arabic) to knitstanbul@gmail.com so we can make him a compilation and send it to him!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.