A merrier Christmas for Jonah with £50k raised
ALMOST £50,000 has been raised for the Jonah Gillingham appeal, his parents have said, as they spoke of being overwhelmed by islanders' generosity.
Jonah, 17, was diagnosed with leukaemia in June last year.
But after surviving that ordeal, earlier this year he was diagnosed with a rare disease called atypical haemolytic-uremic syndrome (aHUS).
The medicine to treat it, Eculizumab, costs £300,000 a year.
Health and Social Services funded a 12-week 'rescue remedy', but that will expire on 31 December. A request to overturn the decision was denied.
With no more money forthcoming, the Gillinghams decided to launch an appeal.
'We have now got almost £50,000, it is just amazing,' said Jonah's mum, Sonia.
'We had no choice but to go public. We had a huge amount of money to raise in a short period of time and now we have got enough up to at least the end of February. It is a huge weight off our minds.
'The beginning of December really was a horrible time – even advent calendars were no longer special as they did not signify a countdown to Christmas but to when the money for Jonah's treatment stopped.'
Money had come from across society, Mrs Gillingham said, with the JustGiving page revealing just how generous people could be.
