A former Burnham-On-Sea resident has launched a desperate appeal to raise $50,000 (over £25,000) within two weeks for crucial medical treatment.
Monique Dickins moved from Burnham to New Zealand last autumn with her partner and still has many friends in the area as she’s a former King Alfred School student.
She has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in her lung and needs an urgent operation to be performed within two weeks, which will cost thousands of pounds.
Monique has launched a fundraising appeal online and told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “We moved to New Zealand in September – and we have an 18-month-old boy, Marlon, and a 5-month-old girl, Margo.”
“In order to finalise my residency to live permanently in New Zealand, Immigration NZ request a chest x-ray. On that x-ray they found a tumour in my lung and they have discovered it is growing and that it needs to come out as soon as possible.”
She added: “The operation will happen quicker here and we have no home in the UK, and no help for our children as my mum is recovering from breast cancer herself.”
“It’s been advised that New Zealand is the best place for the operation to happen.”
Having posted her appeal online she has received a flood of good wishes and support from the Burnham-On-Sea area, particularly as she lost her brother, Jonathan Walcott, in 2016 who was well-known locally.
Monique’s fundraising page is at: https://givealittle.co.nz/
By Friday evening she had already raised half the total sum needed.
