The parents of a young woman in remission from cancer are trekking more than 200 miles to raise funds for her rehab.
Ray and Nikki Holden, who live in Clifton Road, Kenton, will walk the 225 miles from Kingsbury to Birkenhead, near Liverpool, over five days in April.
They want to help fund care for their only child Rebecca, who is recovering from chondrosarcoma bone cancer in her left hip.
The 18-year-old had an operation to remove three malignant tumours in March last year and is battling daily through her recovery.
Ray, a 46-year-old town planner, said: “She was just 17 when she was operated on. She’s a wonderful young girl – of course I’d say that – but it came as a terrible shock to her. Her mum and me are just trying to find out what we can do to help.
“We’re raising the money to support her rehabilitation and pay for additional needs such as specialised physio and give her the best quality of life she can live. The NHS provided four sessions last year but we have to pay for anything else.”
A member of the Hampstead and Westminster Hockey Club that meets in Paddington Rec, Rebecca noticed a pain in her hip two years ago.
Doctors initially believed it could be a kidney infection but tests at the Central Middlesex hospital revealed a lump the size of “a large golf ball” in her hip.
She has recently started walking on crutches, attends weekly rehabilitation for her physical needs and also sees a psychiatrist.
Currently studying A-levels in Stanmore, she hopes to go to Kingston University to train as a teacher.
She said: “I am extremely overwhelmed by the support I have received from loved ones, and even strangers, and that’s all down to my parents. I don’t know how I would have got through this period without them and I’m so proud that they are doing this walk to help make my life liveable again.”
Her parents start their trek at the royal National Orthopedic Hospital in Stanmore where Rebecca is being treated, and finish at Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead where she was born. Ray added: “Every day I look at her and wish I could be going through it instead. The pain she goes through, physical and mental – her life is governed by this.”
You can donate at justgiving.com/crowdfunding/raymond-holden
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