A teacher at Hele’s School in Plympton is fundraising for her granddaughter who lives thousands of miles away.
Music teacher Jane Lee was due to visit New Zealand last July to see her son Tom and baby granddaughter, whose nickname is Elsie Bells.
Jane was looking forward to the trip of a lifetime – but when she arrived her tearful son Tom told her that Elsie didn’t have mumps as was first thought, but had a rare form of child cancer called Neuroblastoma.
The cancer had spread throughout her body and she was diagnosed with stage 4.
New Zealand is a beautiful place and Jane managed to see some of it, but most of her time was spent in the CHOC (Children’s Haematology and Oncology Centre) ward at Christchurch hospital.
Elsie was 10 months old at the time and during the past year she has undergone chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, an operation to remove the main tumour and is now currently going through immunotherapy treatment. She is an amazing little girl with amazing parents and she has responded well to treatment.
During this time Elsie’s parents have had to put work on hold to spend precious time with their daughter and a fund-raising page was set up in New Zealand to help support Elsie and her family.
On Jane’s return home and back to work she knew she had to start to fundraise in order to help her family thousands of miles away.
She started to raise money through selling her and her husband’s artwork in the staff room at Hele’s School where Jane works.
Jane explained: “Team Hele’s certainly came through for me and were incredibly supportive and generous! Not only the staff but Year 7 students put on a talent show to raise money for Elsie and what a talented lot they are.”
The staff raised £300 through a raffle during the quiz and curry night. Prizes for the raffle were donated by staff at the school
Elsie is now on the last stage of her treatment and Jane is hoping to see her this Christmas when she visits the UK.
