Family raffle home to raise money for Neuroblastoma UK
Oonagh was diagnosed with neuroblastoma when she was 19 months old.
The Wilkinson family are hoping to raise £40,000 for Neuroblastoma UK by raffling off their home, after their daughter Oonagh was diagnosed with neuroblastoma on New Years Day 2019, when she was 19 months old.
Mum Samantha said, “We are hoping to raise at least £40,000 for Neuroblastoma UK by raffling off our two-bedroom home in the Lake District. We live in Spain, and originally bought the house as a UK-base in case Oonagh needed treatment or relapsed. We’ll be moving back to the UK soon but will be looking for a bigger house, so we thought we’d raffle the house!
“We want to raise as much money as possible for Neuroblastoma UK from ticket sales as they are only a small charity who do such great work which has gone into Oonagh's treatment plan. Without their research things could have been a lot different.”
Enter raffle to win a South Lakes home
For just £2.50 you could to win this newly refurbished two bedroom house (MORTGAGE FREE and all legal fees and stamp duty paid) plus £5000 cash. A total prize value of over £200,000!
Once all tickets are sold, the family will donate a minimum of £40,000 to Neuroblastoma UK.
The raffle closes on Monday 5th April 2021 at 20:00 or when the last ticket is sold (whichever sooner)
Oonagh’s story
“[the doctors] told us she would be admitted to the oncology ward. Hearing those words I just fell apart and the rollercoaster began.”
“Oonagh had been sick on and off for about four weeks, with vomiting and high temperatures. She’d recently started nursery so we just assumed she’d picked up a few bugs. But when Oonagh also started to get diarrhoea and my parents noticed that she had a swollen tummy, we rang the out-of-hours GP and went to the hospital. The nurse checked her over and thought she had an enlarged liver, so we were booked in for an ultrasound scan on 31 December. Her blood tests also came back clear but when the doctors mentioned leukaemia, I knew they were looking for something serious.
“We were sent home that night, as an outpatient and told we would get a call in the morning to tell us what time to bring her for an ultrasound. Oonagh was really good and lay really still whilst they were doing the scan. The scan all looked very normal so we felt a sense of relief, but then after being quite jolly, the team suddenly went very quiet and serious. They kept checking and found something on her kidney. I knew they’d found something that wasn’t right, but I didn’t know what. They then told me that they had found ‘something’ below her left kidney.
“I asked the doctor how many times they’d seen something like this, and he told me that he’d scanned hundreds of children but only seen this once or twice. The doctors at our local hospital arranged for her to be transferred to Manchester Hospital and told us she would be admitted to the oncology ward. Hearing those words I just fell apart and the rollercoaster began.
Diagnosed with stage one, low risk neuroblastoma
“I’d never heard of neuroblastoma before and I just wanted to bury my head in the sand.”
“Walking onto the oncology ward was a terrifying, not knowing what was ahead of Oonagh.
The medical team at Manchester couldn’t feel or see any tumours so ordered another ultrasound and then an MRI scan. Her bloods and urine results were also OK the first time round, so they weren’t sure if it was neuroblastoma or not. The MRI showed another small tumour at the bottom of Oonagh’s spine.
They repeated her urine tests and her levels had changed. She then under went a bone marrow biopsy and Mibg scan. It took 3-4 weeks before we received a diagnosis of neuroblastoma. The tumours had been so difficult to see because Oonagh had stage one, low risk neuroblastoma. This meant that the cancer hadn’t spread and the tumours could be removed with surgery.
“The doctors told me that it wasn’t important that she had cancer, but that we get Oonagh tested, staged and treated as quickly as possible. It had taken so long to be told that it wasn’t the news I was expecting to hear. I’d never heard of neuroblastoma before and I just wanted to bury my head in the sand. Thankfully, Oonagh’s surgery to remove the tumours was successful and she’s doing really well. We were told there was no evidence of disease six months after our journey began. Oonagh has an MRI scan every three months for her follow up care.
“We feel really lucky that Oonagh’s cancer was caught so quickly. We’ve not had to live with this every day and Oonagh wasn’t affected in such an awful way as other children, so we wanted to help where we could. Until you experience it or know someone who has, most people don’t know about neuroblastoma. Which is why raising awareness of neuroblastoma and raising money for research is so important.”
Enter raffle to win a new home
For just £2.50, you could win Samantha’s newly refurbished two bedroom house. The house is just 10 minutes from the Lake District National park, MORTGAGE FREE and all legal fees and stamp duty paid. You could also win £5000 cash!
To be in with a chance of winning the two-bedroom Ulverston home and for full terms and conditions, please visit the Raffall website.