Parents of two year old cancer sufferer given 18 days to raise £152k for life-saving operation

The parents of a little girl with aggressive liver cancer have begun the daunting task of raising £152,000 to send their daughter for potentially lifesaving cancer treatment in the US.

Andrew and Ruth Roberts have been given less than three weeks to raise the whopping sum in order for their little girl Sophie to be operated on by specialists in New York.

Sophie suffers from hepatoblastoma, a rare form of liver and lung cancer that affects one in 1.5million children and has a survival rate of 30 per cent.

She was diagnosed in June 2011 and after enduring seven rounds of chemotherapy and liver and lung surgery, brave Sophie went into remission in March 2012. But sadly her tumour marker started to climb in late April and the cancer was found to have returned aggressively throughout her lungs in early May.

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The family hopes to raise the money to fund an operation to remove the tumour by specialists at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Doctors at the specialist US clinic accepted her case but the family has only 18 days left to raise the funds. So far they have collected £78,000, partly by remortgaging their home in Church Crookham, Hampshire, and partly through fundraising efforts of relatives and well-wishers.

A message from Andrew and Ruth on Sophie's JustGiving page reads: “The best option for Sophie is surgery. Two UK surgery teams have refused to operate at this time but luckily a team in New York has agreed to offer her this life-saving surgery. It has to be privately funded so we are asking for help with raising this money and saving our daughter’s life.”

“We meet so many children who don’t make it, we need to fight for our daughter,” they add.

“We have already lost several very close family and friends to cancer over the years and will do whatever it takes to ensure we do not lose anymore.

“Please donate and you’ll keep us fighting and hoping.”

Donations to the fund can be made at www.justgiving.com/SophieRobertsStory