The parents of a Mauchline youngster who is battling cancer have been "blown away" by support as their fundraising total reaches its target.
Young Ava Bolton was diagnosed with stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma, and parents, Scott and Natalie then set about doing everything they could to raise £250,000 to get Ava across to America for specialist treatment.
At the start of their journey to raise funds, Scott admitted that £250,000 seemed like a lifetime away.
However, after starting the fundraising in April, Ava's target has recently surpassed the £250,000 mark.
According to the parents, Ava will now have to go through a couple of days of tests to confirm she can move on to the next phase which is radio therapy followed by Immunotherapy.
Her treatment is estimated to finish around May or June of 2024.
After that, the youngster will again go through her final tests to confirm she is in complete remission at which point they have a short window of around 45 days to get to MSK in New York and get Ava's first vaccination.
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Sharing their delight about reaching the total, the parents said: "We don’t really know what to say, we are completely blown away by the generosity of every person and business that has supported us throughout this time, we never thought that six months ago when we started this fundraiser that we would have hit our target so a massive thank you everyone.
"We set our target amount based on what other families had raised in the past, this was an estimated amount, however after doing further research into treatment and medical fees and current living costs involved, we have decided to continue our fundraising efforts with all planned events going ahead."
The parents say that the treatment plan will last for three years, with Ava receiving 10 vaccinations in this time.
The family will need to travel and live in New York around seven times within the three years.
The first three visits will be for an estimated period of six weeks, with subsequent trips estimated to be between one and two weeks, depending on how Ava is after each vaccination.
They added: "After Ava’s treatment at MSK is complete and she is through the five-year survival rate, funds that were not required for our precious girl will be donated to various local causes and charity’s to help families who are also going through a difficult time.
"Again, thank you so much to everyone for your continued support, it has meant so much to us to have everyone behind us during and showing support."
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