The appeal to raise money for life-saving treatment for Lulu De Vries continues, as her dad completes his 12 marathons in 12 days challenge.
Lulu De Vries, from Great Denham has captured the hearts of people across the world after she was diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma.
Lulu has been responding well to treatment in the UK, but her chance of a relapse, and then the unthinkable, are high.
Lulu’s Fight has been set up to raise the funding needed for Lulu to access treatment in New York, that could help reduce her chance of a relapse.
Read: “Losing her isn’t an option” Lulu’s fight for life-saving treatment
Without access to this treatment, Lulu’s chances of survival would drop to less than one in ten.
Bedfordians across the Borough have responded to the appeal with charity events being arranged across the Borough.
People have organised everything from raffles, pamper nights, auctions, head shaves and even a sponsored ‘Leap for Lulu’ which will see people jump from a 125ft tower at Twinwoods Adventure.
Lulu’s dad, Rob, has also been taking part in his own challenge too.
Rob and a team of friends walked 12 marathons in 12 days across the UK, starting in Bedford and passing through:
- Warwick
- North Herts
- Leicester
- Bicester
- Northampton
- Milton Keynes
- Oxford
- St. Albans
- Brighton
- Cambridge
- Bedford
Speaking about the challenge Rob told us: “Overall I think it went really well. We suffered a lot with blisters, pulls and strains and I had a crack in my foot which prevented me from doing all 12 but did manage to do 8 of them.
“We had a team of about 20 doing the walks on the different days, many of which had their own pages set up plus we were collecting on the street.
“Since we started the JustGiving Plus the cash has gone up by about £21,000 to when we finished.
“We had set an unofficial target of £12,000 so we are all delighted with the total that has been collected.
“The public were great when we were out walking with many stopping us and asking what we were doing and then donating when they heard Lulu’s story.
“Which helped keep up morale plus many motorist papping the horn as they went past.”
In total, Lulu needs £162,000 to get the life-saving treatment in New York and the appeal is currently half way.
Speaking to the Bedford Independent ahead of the challenge, Lulu told us how proud she was of her dad and Rob explained why the appeal is so important.
Looking ahead, Lulu will be a mascot at the home game for Bedford Blues V Richmond on 13 April, just before she goes back into hospital for 10 days.
Other planned charity events include:
- Laps for Lulu – A fancy dress walk around Great Denham Park on 4 May
- A charity football match at Kempston Rovers on 11 May
- Leap for Lulu on 19 May
