Generous stranger offers teen vital cancer treatment
IT surely had to be fate. A Harrogate teenager was offered pioneering cancer treatment following the chance meeting of his grandma and the chairman of a leading London Hospital on Ripon Market Square.
Christopher Wilson, from the Kings Road area, is a brave 18-year-old who has been fighting a rare form of spinal cancer, known as Ependymoma, for the past 10 years.
Sadly, despite many years of treatment, the tumours on his spine were deemed inoperable by his cancer specialists in the North-east.
But experts at Leeds General Infirmary told Christopher's family about a potential lifeline.
CyberKnife is a new radiosurgical technology for treating both benign and cancerous tumours anywhere in the body. However, it is only available in two hospitals in the UK and costs around 22,000.
Desperate to raise the funds for the treatment with the hope of destroying the tumour and preventing him from becoming paralysed, as well as potentially prolonging his life, Christopher's family began a major fundraising drive.
And it was while his grandma, Jean Wilson, was out collecting money in Ripon Market on a rainy Saturday in May that she had a serendipitous meeting with Michael Abrahams.
Mr Abrahams, who lives near Ripon, asked Mrs Wilson what cause she was collecting for, and when she told him about Christopher's plight he revealed he was the chairman of The London Clinic.
Determined to arrange immediate treatment for Christopher and to give his family some precious hope, Mr Abrahams set the wheels in motion. He made contact with two local charities, The Yorkshire Children's Hospital Fund, of which Mr Abrahams was a founder, and Brainstrust, a charity dedicated to improving medical care for brain tumour sufferers through which Christopher's family and friends were raising money.
Mr Abrahams also approached The New Victoria Medical Foundation, a charity that works closely with The London Clinic to provide medical assistance.
Just weeks later, on July 7, when all the grants were in place, Christopher and his family made the journey down to Harley Street in London, where he was treated with CyberKnife at The London Clinic Cancer Centre.
Christopher's mother, Sara Wilson, said: "We are immensely grateful to Michael Abrahams and the team at The London Clinic for offering Chris the chance to undergo this advanced treatment - and to once again, give us more hope in our ongoing battle against this terrible disease.
"We've always had a wonderful team of healthcare professionals in Leeds, but we were reaching a stage where they were just unable to help us any more. The chance meeting between my mum and Michael Abrahams was a dream come true and has given Chris the gift of being able to enjoy life once more, doing all the things that a teenager should be doing."
Christopher was just eight-years-old when he was first diagnosed with cancer. After successful surgery, followed by radiotherapy he made a good recovery. Sadly, after four years, the tumours returned in his spine. Since then, Chris has undergone numerous operations and treatments to remove a further eight spinal tumours.
Mr Abrahams said: “This is a heartwarming story of how charities can come together to offer patients hope.
“PCTs have to make tough decisions and, sadly, cannot help everyone. That is what happened to Christopher. This illustrates how pioneers in the private sector can work in partnership with charities to provide NHS patients the very latest in cancer treatments, when PCTs are not able to fund procedures that their doctors recommend.
“All the doctors treating Chris agreed that this CyberKnife was the best option to help him at this point in time. Unfortunately, his NHS PCT could not support it. The London Clinic is a charity and often works with other charities to provide treatment to people who might not otherwise have access to the very latest advances in healthcare.”
Jo Ropner, chairman of the Yorkshire Children’s Hospital Fund, added: “We are thrilled to have been able to help. We are very keen to hear from the families of any young people in Yorkshire who need help where the NHS, for various reasons, has been unable to assist them.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Ripon
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -7 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
