Entertainment
Ex On The Beach’s Ashley Cain raises £1m in less than 24 hours for life-saving surgery for baby daughter
Ashley Cain has raised £1million in less than 24 hours to save his baby daughter’s life.
The Ex On the Beach star’s seven-month old little girl Azaylia Diamond Cain is battling leukaemia in hospital and he has been sharing his heartache with his followers on social media.
This weekend, the 30-year-old asked fans for help with his girlfriend Safiyya Vorajee setting up a fundraiser on website GoFundMe.
Reality star Ashley said CAR-T therapy is ‘the only option to save Azaylia’s life’ and they will likely have to fly out to Singapore in a matter of weeks, with the treatment taking a minimum of a year.
A message on GoFundMe read: ‘Our beautiful daughter Azaylia Diamond Cain was just eight weeks old when we got the heartbreaking news that she had been diagnosed with AML Leukaemia.
‘On diagnosis Azaylia had a frighteningly high leukemia count plus tumours in her spleen, stomach, lungs and kidneys which put her in critical condition and resulted in her being put into intensive care.
‘The doctors warned us that there was a high probability that she wouldn’t survive past the first round of chemotherapy due to the aggressiveness and rareness of her disease combined with her age.’
It went on to explain that Azaylia surprised medics by pulling through two rounds of chemo with few side effects but it became clear this was not enough to beat the blood cancer.
Consultants told Ashley and Safiyya that Azaylia would need an urgent bone marrow transplant and they were thrilled to find a donor after raising awareness on social media.
It was discovered Azaylia was in the poor risk category for transplant success and high risk for fatal complications but she survived the engraftment process with minimal side effects.
Despite the transplant, it was found she still had traces of leukaemia, devastating news for the parents as they’d been told there was nothing more that could be done if it returned within a year.
Unfortunately the leukaemia rapidly multiplied and Azaylia went into full relapse, urgently returning to hospital.
Her mother wrote online: ‘She is currently undergoing her 4th round of chemotherapy to try and bring her disease into remission.
‘After long discussions and a global outreach for treatment, our consultants along with consultants from around the world have come to the conclusion that the ONLY option to save Azaylia’s life is to fly to Singapore for CAR-T therapy plus a haplo transplant, for a minimum period of 1 year.
‘Because of the aggressiveness of Azaylia’s disease, we don’t have time on our side and we may have to fly out within a matter of weeks.
‘This treatment and our accommodation will be in excess of 1 million pounds with an initial deposit of £500,000 just to be accepted into the hospital and onto the program…
‘We are on our knees asking for help to get us to Singapore. Please help us to save our beautiful daughter Azaylia.’
The couple have pledged to donate any extra money to other children and their families in the same situation.
Ashley recently shared a picture of his baby girl on Instagram, saying his heart is being ‘torn to pieces’ by his daughter’s suffering.
