My brave daughter, 6, beat cancer but now it’s returned and NHS won’t fund her treatment – I’m crushed
THE family of a six-year-old girl who beat cancer need help to pay for a last-ditch treatment after it returned.
Amelia Kolpa was diagnosed with rare neuroblastoma in the stomach aged two in 2020 after she was hit by a fever.
A gruelling two-year regime of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy led to Amelia triumphantly ringing the hospital’s end-of-treatment bell in 2022.
But last month, she woke in agony in the night before doctors confirmed the cancer was in her leg.
Her mum Katarzyna Bartczak, 36, from Halesowen, West Midlands, said the news was “crushing”.
The family want Amelia to have a combination of chemo and antibody treatment but cannot get it on the NHS.
They are trying to raise £340,000 to pay privately for a potential 17 cycles at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
To donate visit gofund.me/1f2077dc.
An online crowdfunder has already passed £13,000 and Katarzyna is pleading for more help.
She said: “I’m desperate to do anything to try and save my daughter’s life. This is our only chance to save her.
“We know she responds well to the combination treatment of chemotherapy and antibodies.
“She has already been through so much that the thought of having to go through it again is horrifying, but we know that we have to do this.
“She’s beaten the disease once, she just needs another chance.”
Around 100 children a year in the UK are diagnosed with neuroblastoma, mostly before the age of five.
It often starts in the tummy and spreads. Signs may include a lump and pain, numbness, weakness and difficulty breathing and swallowing.