A young Sikh father, Anupreet ‘Anu’ Amole, fought in the British Army’s Operation Herrick VI in 2007 survived the potentially-fatal badlands, but is now fighting another battle. His daughter, Daya, is suffering from neuroblastoma, a very rare cancer and has already undergone nine rounds of chemotherapy at Great Ormond Street
Now, Anu needs to raise more than £100,000 for a vital operation, this month
Daya, who has plastic medical tubes running across her face and around her chest, is suffering from neuroblastoma, a very rare — fewer than 100 new cases are diagnosed in the UK each year — and aggressive form of cancer which strikes the youngest and most vulnerable, developing in nerve cells left behind from a baby’s growth in utero.
The chances of survival in high-risk cases such as hers are, at best, 50-50.
Yet the original ‘massive’ tumour in her chest persists, albeit diminished. Three months ago, Daya’s surgeon told her parents it was inoperable. The tumour’s position, wrapped around two main blood vessels, was too dangerous for removal. But in leaving it alone, the chances of relapse and the cancer spreading once again were high.
Anu and his wife Pam, an academic, sought a second opinion, which led them to Dr Michael La Quaglia at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Dr La Quaglia is perhaps the world’s foremost expert on the surgical treatment of Daya’s condition. He can operate on her this month, he has told Anu and Pam. The procedure will be high risk, but it is the family’s only hope.
A fundraising campaign, backed by leading military figures, has raised the £362,000 needed for the initial operation, which the family hopes will take place on September 24.
The generosity, very often from strangers who’ve seen Pam’s moving My Three Little Bears blog or the @HelpSaveDaya Twitter feed, has been a bright light in an otherwise bleak landscape.
