‘From the bottom of my heart, thank you’: GoFundMe raises over £14,000 for terminally ill cancer patient in one week
- Leah Hornby set up a GoFundMe for her sister Becki, whose cancer was recently diagnosed as incurable
- Family are ‘shocked’ by the generosity of strangers
- Money will be used to ‘make memories’ with her 10-year-old son
A GoFundMe page, which was set up in aid of a terminally ill cancer patient, has smashed its £500 goal by earning over £14,000 in just one week.
Leah Hornby, whose sister Becki recently discovered her cancer had returned, set up the fundraiser last month.
Becki Dunn was first diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago and, after having beaten it twice, received news recently that it had returned in three different places.
She has now been informed that her cancer is incurable.
Leah said: “The Monday that we found out was horrendous,
“Everything was normal and then crash, the world just came crashing down again.
“We were screaming, we were in bits, it was horrendous.”
In an effort to raise money to help with finances and ‘make memories’ for Becki’s ten-year-old son, Leah set up the GoFundMe as a place for family and friends to make contributions.
Initially, Leah expected to raise £1,000-£2,000 if the page was left active for a while, but has now raised more than £14,000.
“I can’t even believe it’s gone that far,” she said.
“We live in Astley, we’re just a little family who do know a lot of people but then it’s shot off that much, we were just like, wow.”
Leah posted the link on Facebook where it received hundreds of shares, but she attributes the success of the campaign to schoolteacher Becki’s popularity.
She said: “She’s a primary school teacher, so she’s known by hundreds and hundreds of people.
“Obviously everybody’s just desperate to do anything to basically save her.”
Becki herself ‘couldn’t believe’ people were sending so much money.
Currently, the top donation stands at £500, with others donating £100 and £200 to the cause.
Now, Leah wants to thank everyone who has donated to the page.
She said: “They’ve no idea how much it’s raised Bec’s spirits, how much she’s realised she is loved.
“It’s going to do a lot more than we could have tried to do. It’s just amazing.
“There’s that many people, I can’t actually thank each one individually.”
Leah plans to hold additional in-person fundraisers in the future for Becki.