Cancer Costs - Darcy's story

Darcy was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia when he was 8 years old and now nearly two and a half years on he continues to make the 166-mile round trip to Sheffield Children's hospital, where Darcy is being treated. The average distance children travel to SCH is 57 miles - from home.  Since he was diagnosed in September 2017 Darcy's parents, Jay and Jo,  have completed the journey about 200 times. In total, driven around 24,000 miles on hospital visits alone, often attending clinic twice or three times per week. Since first diagnosis, they have spent around £9000 on travel - £3200 on hospital parking, £5500 on fuel and £2300 on food whilst traveling, staying over and supporting Darcy. 

Unfortunately, Darcy relapsed from the standard treatment for his cancer and had a Stem Cell transplant in November 2018, sadly he relapsed again and is currently on Ward 6 at Sheffield Children's Hospital. He was readmitted in January 2020 and is facing a second transplant on 2 April 2020. Darcy has taken part in clinical trials with chemotherapy drugs alone costing over £40K.

The main goal here is to secure funding to support the additional 'hidden' costs of living with a child with cancer - for example, in order to be with Darcy for his second transplant his parents will have to spend a further £900 on parking alone, this is with a 50% reduction - despite the Governments recent pledge of 'free-parking' from 1st April 2020 .  Darcy's parents would like to thank you sincerely for any support to reduce the crippling financial burden. We are aiming to raise £10  000 to continue supporting Darcy, every penny donated will be used to ensure the family remain together as much as possible.

Last November, CLIC Sargent attempted to lobby Parliament about this issue (#Cancercosts) but this was around the time of Brexit debates so little impact or awareness was raised. Please do take a look at Darcy's short video clip which was done in an attempt to support the national campaign for CLIC Sargent.

https://twitter.com/CLIC_Sargent/status/1171722386066104321  

Thank you https://we.tl/b-MoZilSn7yR