Save our Stan

Carlisle postwoman Georgia Brecken is hoping to raise £500,000 for lifesaving treatment for her two-year-old boy Stanley, who needs urgent treatment for a rare and very aggressive form of leukaemia.

Stan has already had two bone marrow transplants, but his cancer has returned and the family have now embarked on a fundraising campaign to raise the money required for treatment in Singapore. 

‘On 7 March 2019, we were given the devastating news that our beautiful son, Stanley, had leukaemia - he was just 16 months old,’ said Georgia. ‘We were taken by emergency ambulance to Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary. After further tests we were told he had T-CELL Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

‘We were told he was so poorly they didn't know if he would survive the weekend. He had a chest tumour also and couldn’t be put to sleep to have a central line inserted, so they had to insert a triple groin line while he was awake as he urgently needed to start his chemotherapy. He was in intensive care for a couple of days and then transferred back to the ward.

‘He seemed to be doing well, but every time we had a bone marrow aspirate, the results weren’t what we wanted to hear; his leukaemia was proving hard to get control of with no signs of remission. After lots of different chemo therapies we got to where we wanted to be and on 9 August 2019, we had our first transplant.

‘On 2 October, we were given the heart-breaking news that Stan had relapsed. The palliative care team were brought in to meet us and we were told to take him home and make memories. The worst news any parent could ever hear. This was the worst weekend of our lives.

‘Thankfully, our wonderful consultant contacted us to say a company had agreed to give Stan a trial drug - a glimmer of hope in the darkest of days. Amazingly, this drug appeared to get his leukaemia under control which made him eligible for a second transplant. This went ahead on 20 December last year and we got to go home to be a family of four again.

‘Everything seemed to be going great, but on 8 June we were given the devastating news the leukaemia had returned. We'd always worried about relapse, but this still came as a massive blow as Stanley had been so well, enjoying being home and playing with his big sister Delilah. We have been told there is no other treatment here in the UK and our only hope is getting Stan to Singapore for treatment. However, the cost of this is way beyond our limits as a minimum of £500,000 is needed up front before they will accept Stan for the lifesaving treatment he needs. This is why we need your help as we are desperate to save our little boy.

‘Stanley has been so strong throughout everything, this is his only chance and we have to try to save our son. Please support us in trying to raise these funds as quickly as possible. If we manage to raise more than we need any other monies would go towards funding research or helping other families that need to explore treatment options for their poorly children. Please help to save our Stan.’

Please click here if you would like to help raise the funding needed for Stan’s treatment.