Parents of 11-year-old girl in ‘life-threatening’ condition plead for help
Hannah Katz’s family appeal for donations to help fight a rare and ’inoperable’ form of cancer requiring expensive treatment in the US
Jake Levison is an intern at Jewish News
An 11-year-old girl is in need of expensive radiation therapy in order to survive after being diagnosed with an extremely rare form of cancer.
Hannah Katz’s parents Julian, 58, and Hayley, 48, were left devastated after being told by doctors that the rare cancer that their daughter had developed, called embryonal parameningeal rhabdomyosarcoma, was “life-threatening and inoperable”.
Hannah is already weeks into chemotherapy, but the only form of therapy that could possibly save her life is a new radiation process called Proton Beam Therapy, which allows greater amounts of targeted radiation that does not damage surrounding tissue.
However, Hannah’s family, residing in Johannesburg, are unable to provide her with the treatment because it is only available in the US – and is extremely costly.
Hannah’s mother Hayley said: “We’ve worked hard, been responsible, planned ahead, saved, but not enough to get the only therapy that has any chance of killing the cancer inside her without killing the brain that makes her who she is.”
The treatment has already proven to be successful with other children – in September 2014 it was reported that British boy, Aysha King, then 5-years-old, was cured of brain cancer after he had received Proton Beam Therapy in the US.
Hannah has designed a Relate Trust bracelet, comprised of bright coloured beads, in order to raise funds for her treatment.
A crowdfunding page has also been set up in order to raise funds for Hannah’s treatment. The page has already raised over £111,000 of its £369,000 goal.
Hannah was recently given permission to leave her hospital bed for two hours in order to participate in, and ultimately win, a karate tournament in which all other participants wore pink belts as a sign of respect for the young fighter.
Watch a clip of her performance below, and visit Hannah’s crowdfunding page here: https://www.gofundme.com/6cjg9j-help-hannah-heal
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