Imagine a world where your child is critically ill. Where they may not survive. Where, without treatment they will absolutely not survive. Where, the current treatments may still change your child's life irrevocably. Now, imagine that this treatment has a price tag that is beyond your grasp - Evan is living in that world. His life is worth £50,000. He is only 4.

Evan's story begins in October. He began four days of not sleeping at all. Began being sick, and then on the morning of the 10th October, was unable to stand back up after falling out of bed. His legs just stopped working, despite his attempts. He cried - really cried. I panicked. Real fear. We took him to the hospital, and were sent out that morning.

In the evening of the 10th, he had become noticeably worse, pleading with mummy and daddy for things, telling me he had enough standing when he was laying down. My little boy was really bad and an ambulance crew was sent. They found his heart rate to be between 36 and 50 instead of a standard 100. They rushed him in and the following day he underwent an MRI. The news was devastating for us all. He had a brain tumour and was critically ill as a result - needing life saving operation that evening.

The operation was a success, giving me the best birthday present I have ever had. We were then told to prepare for the tumour removal operation the following week. After a 9.5 hour operation which was full of tears and worry, he came out. His recovery was one of the worst things I have ever witnessed, having had the back of his head opened up. The feeling of helplessness and fear. Again, some luck - the tumour was fully removed. We were expecting the results on the following Friday to show it was benign.

Unfortunately, this was not to be and we were given the news that Evan had a Medulloblastoma. He had brain cancer - an aggressive form with some horrifying statistics for children of his age. The NHS do not refer this type of cancer for proton therapy due to its aggressive nature we were told. The NHS do not have proton therapy in the UK. We expected the worst and started to look for a centre which could help us. During this time, many specialists confirmed that proton radiotherapy would be their advice - countries that have the treatment. The costs however have been staggering and varied.

We have been lucky to find a proton centre in Essen, Germany that is not just able to fit Evan in the timeframe he has been given but is the lowest priced option. However, that price may still be the one stumbling block.

This is just the first step of the battle - we know we have chemotherapy to come. Evan has been amazingly brave. Please help us make sure it was not in vain.

Love from Evan, Papa, Mama and Mila

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Please contact me for a form so we get additional 25% from HMRC if you are a UK tax payer. rorywestfold@hotmail.com

Also, you will save us an additional 5% (fee charged by justgiving) if you transfer to Tree of Hope directly, ref: Evan Westfold 2017

Account: Tree of Hope

Account Number: 21862665

Sort code: 23-05-80

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.
 
If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects.  If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.