Parents need to raise £150,000 in 18 days to save daughter with a one-in-a-million form of liver cancer

  • Parents have partly remortgaged their home to raise money for operation

By Jenni Marsh

Published: 08:06 EST, 26 June 2012 | Updated: 18:11 EST, 26 June 2012

Sophie Roberts was first diagnosed with cancer in June 2011

Sophie Roberts was first diagnosed with cancer in June 2011

The parents of a two-year-old girl who has liver cancer have just 18 days to raise £152,000 for a life-saving operation.

Sophie Roberts’s parents, Andrew and Ruth, are desperately trying to raise £230,000 so their daughter can have a tumour removed by specialists at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Sophie suffers from hepatoblastoma, a form of liver cancer that affects one in 1.5million children and has a survival rate of 30 per cent.

Ruth and Andrew had just found out they were expecting another child when Sophie was diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2011 and it soon spread to her lungs.

The prognosis for children with this type of cancer is extremely poor, with just a 30 per cent chance of survival.

Sophie has so far endured three rounds of chemotherapy before having liver surgery last November, when 25 per cent of her liver - and the entire primary tumour - was removed.

Ruth stayed with her daughter in hospital, even though she was due to give birth any day. In the end she had son James a week later - on Sophie's second birthday.

Her parents said: 'Sophie coped well with the treatment and continued to be her smiley and cheeky self, blowing kisses to the nurses and throwing her pushchair and baby down the slopes in the hospitals.'

The brave youngster then started a further four rounds of chemotherapy to clear the remaining tumours in her lungs and went into remission in March 2012.

However, her family were devastated when a final CT scan revealed the cancer had returned in May.

It means the cancer is aggressive and treatment options are now limited with surgery considered to be the best bet.

Sophie Roberts¿s parents, Andrew and Ruth, need to find another £152,000 to enable their daughter to have a life-saving operation

Sophie Roberts¿s parents, Andrew and Ruth, need to find another £152,000 to enable their daughter to have a life-saving operation

The specialist US clinic accepted her case but the family has until the middle of next month to raise the funds.

So far they have collected £78,000, partly by remortgaging their home in Church Crookham, Hampshire, while relatives and well-wishers have been fundraising.

‘We meet so many children who don’t make it, we need to fight for our daughter,’ said Mrs Roberts.

A message on Sophie's JustGiving page said: 'We have already lost several very close family and friends to cancer over the years and will do whatever it takes to ensure we do not lose anymore.

'Please donate and you’ll keep us fighting and hoping.'

Donations to the fund can be made at www.justgiving.com/SophieRobertsStory

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