21/11/2006 by ramps.

Katie Newell is a 15 year old teenager who enjoys life, but sadly for Katie she has suffered much pain and endured a long struggle. Katie suffers from Neurofibromatosis, NF1 for short. Nf1 is a hereditary disease and can affect sufferers either mildly or severely. Unfortunately for Katie the condition is very severe. Katie has massive plexiform tumours throughout her body from head to waist entwining her heart, trachea, lungs, pancreas and spinal cord.

Katie has already had several operations one of which was in Boston, USA.  Doctors said Katie would not see her 5th Birthday but the Boston Children’s Hospital threw Katie a lifeline by decompressing her completely flattened spinal cord and rebuilding her badly deformed spine with titanium rods which fuse the base of her spine to the bottom of her skull. The surgery gave Katie a new lease of life.

Sadly for Katie the tumours are once more jeopardizing her life.  Just over a year ago, Doctors diagnosed Katie’s condition as terminal again, predicting 18-24 months before the tumors stop her vital organs from functioning.  A scan revealed her tumors were so big they had completely squashed one lung with the remaining lung being compromised by the tumor attacking it from above and below, leaving Katie with only 30% function in her remaining lung.

Surgery does not seem to be an option as the tumors are attached to hundreds of little nerves making removal of the tumors impossible without total paralysis.

Through our ongoing research into finding any medical development that may be able to help Katie ..

We have found, on the internet, a clinical trial that is going on in Indiana USA.  A Doctor there has established that the tumors are made up of lots of different cells, these cells communicate with one another telling each other to grow.  He has discovered that a drug called Gleevec, that is usually used in leukemia patients, has stopped the growth of the tumours and, so far, show positive signs in shrinking them.  This is in the early stages of the trial but it is Katie’s lifeline. The medical team in the UK who look after Katie have agreed that it is something that we have to try.

www.nfcure.org/index.html

The trial is to start on 29th November.  We are raising money to fund the trial, although the actual drug is free the use of hospital facilities is not & being in America it is very expensive (MRI scans $4000-5000, blood tests & doctor consultations etc)

If there is any way you can help we would be very grateful. Katie is a very special little girl who never complains about her illness and her wish is to work with animals when she gets older; we just hope we can fulfill that wish.

Details on fun raising events will be added later.  I will personally donating some of my betting bank to such a worthy cause.

Thank you for you help

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21/11/2006 by ramps.

The ashes are nearly here and England injury worries continue with Ian Bell struggling for fitness before the first test.   Work was manic yesterday but at least the day flew by.  Started work at about 6.30am and finished at 5.30pm.  Got lots of stuff achieved which is unusal.   I have already run through the cars for today’s racing and the races with high strike ratio’s again have short forecast prices.  There maybe an angle in 3.10 Kempton but I think it is going to a very tight day.   November to date has been a very disappointing month and has firmly put the pressure on December to yield a strong finish to the year.

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