Help! Great Ormond St have quoted £60k for an operation in six weeks - anybody know of a charity that might help?

[winebeforepearls]

My cousin in Greece has been busy raising money for a gorgeous Greek-Ethiopian boy (2.5) called Abraham to come to London to have a vital operation to reconstruct his larynx/windpipe. (At the moment he has a permanent trachyotomy tube so that he can breathe.)

Great Ormond St had quoted £20k for the op., but now have come back with a figure of £60k which we need to raise before mid-June. We are busy trying to do that, but wondered whether anyone has any suggestions for charities that could help.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions ...

I don't know. That's a tremendous amount for one child. What will happen in he doesnt have the op?

I know it's a huge amount, hercules. It's infuriating because she'd raised the 20k, and now I don't know whether we'll have the time - or will have to delay the operation until we've raised the money.

He's relatively stable, so can live with the trach tube for a while longer, but he can't speak and can't really run around much because of it. With the op he should be able to lead a normal life.

There are loads and loads of kids already in this country though with similar or worse problems and who aren't getting this sort of financial help so I'm not sure if you would get so much from a charity for one child or even charities.

But those kids should get treatment on the NHS. He has to come to GOSH because the surgeons in Athens can't do it, and my cousin was careful to raise what she thought was enough money before he flew over.

Hey ho. Will try other ideas.

Yes, they should but there simply isnt enough money to do these things hence the charities existence in the first place. Best of luck.

I thought there was an EU agreement that if a treatment/op wasn't available in own EU country, EU citizen could travel to another EU country to get it. Useful linkwww.iese.edu/en/events/Projects/Health/home/home.asp

Might it be better to see if the team could fly to Athens to do the op and train surgeons over there at the same time?

Mohammed Al Fayed has a children's charity

a look here, but i have NO idea of the criteria or funding available right now

guidestar has a list of charities

have a look for funding here

Ruby, thanks so much for the links, I will have a good read through and see whether any of them might help.

MaudG, I have a feeling that option has already been explored - certainly enough EU officials have been involved just getting their travel documents organised, surely someone would have mentioned it if he was eligible

SueW, yes that would be fantastic, though at the moment we're just trying to keep the date for the operation - it's taken 6 months to organise already.

Hercules1, I seriously doubt that a child with this sort of condition in the UK would go untreated by the NHS.
Winebeforepearls - has your cousin set up a website or donation link of any kind (such as a justgiving page).?
What about publicising it through the Greek community in the UK?

wine when will you be at GOSH with your friend? I have to go back on the 2nd June for a few back with DS1??

a few days...

Hi Sparkly, how's it going? Has your ds had the op? Did it go well??

Abraham's booked in the week of 16 June, so I don't think we'll be back before then, although I may need to go in to beg for charity!

Rosa, yes my cousin is busy talking to all her Greek and Ethiopian friends in London, and is hopeful she can raise a lot here. (I have a feeling she's exhausted her Athens links). She hasn't set a British webpage up yet, but I suspect it will be something we'll look at over the next few days.

no not yet, Ds1 is booked in for the 20th May for the op and then we have to go back 2 weeks later for a few days

Sorry, I haven't really explained very well -- it's complicated by the fact that although Abraham is Greek by birth, his mother only has political asylum in Greece, so they can't just fly in and out of this country.

So flying back to wait for more money to be raised and then having to jump through more hoops for another British visa is a PITA ...

Sparkly, all best wishes for the 20th -- they are lovely at GOSH (despite their private accounts dept apparently getting their sums a leetle wrong )

I mentioned about moving the experts cos that's what happened with DD. The experienced surgeon came to Nottm and operated on DD at our local teaching hospital.

I got the reassurance of having local support and family around, the ability to go home easily, not face a long journey. And DD got care from a local consultant who knew exactly what had happened in theatre because he was there, not reading some notes and we didn't have to travel to London for follow-up appointments.

We paid for private treatment but by doing it at the teaching hospital instead of the smaller private hospital, many medical staff who would not normally have been able to see this op benefited by it being done here.

SueW, well it would certainly be worth asking if it looks like we'll have to delay this op. He's one of the top ENT surgeons in the world, so perhaps we can appeal to his ego

In the meantime we're having to wait til everyone's back on Tuesday before we can work out what to do next. See if GOSH will lower their fee, how much we can raise quickly, etc.

Ha! Thanks to RubySlippers I have found the ENT foundation with our very own surgeon on the committee. So now I shall stalk him til he agrees to do the op for free

Hurrah! Keep us posted

just a nosy bump