Family elated as donor comes through to pay for treatment in US for little Ned Isham

IT’S official: the Isham family is off to the US so little Ned can get potentially lifesaving cancer treatment.

Ned Isham, 5, is off to the US for lifesaving treatment. Picture: JASON EDWARDS

IT’S official: the Isham family is off to the US so little Ned can get potentially lifesaving cancer treatment.

Ned, 5, has been battling cancer for almost four years.

On Saturday, the Mercury reported how Emily and Seth Isham and their children moved from Kingston to Melbourne in June last year so Ned could receive a bone-marrow transplant from his younger sister Eleanor at the Royal Children’s Hospital, to treat acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

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Sadly, the bone marrow treatment failed to stop Ned’s leukaemia so last week the family created a GoFundMe page to raise the $680,000 needed to get Ned to Seattle for a world-leading clinical trial at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Within a couple of days, almost 650 generous contributors managed to raise $83,000 through the GoFundMe page and hundreds more raised nearly $120,000 through the Rare Cancers Australia page.

At the weekend, an emotional Dr Isham told the Sunday Tasmanian an anonymous donor had reached out offering to pay the remaining costs.

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Now, she is finally able to begin packing for the three-month trip after she received confirmation everything was legitimate. “We will be heading to Seattle in early May,” she said.

“We don’t have to remortgage our home, take out our super and pay back a debt for years and years, so this is a phenomenal outcome.

“We are elated.”

Dr Isham said it had been a long and emotional journey.

The family had initially hoped to be back home in Tassie within a year.

The transplant failure dashed those hopes and now the family must find the resolve to push forward.

Dr Isham said now the financial stress had been removed thanks to the kindness of strangers, she could focus on ensuring her children were ready for what’s to come.

“We have presented it (to the children) as an adventure overseas to get more treatment to get rid of the leukaemia.”