An appeal set up by the best friend of an Eastbourne woman who fell ill on Boxing Day (Dec 26) has reached its target of over £2,000 in 24 hours - but the family still needs help.
Victoria Gottschalk wrote to More Radio yesterday (Dec 29) to tell us about her best friend Emma who has been suffering from lupus for a number of years.
She said Emma had not had the regular treatment needed for the disease during Covid and had gone downhill over Christmas:
"My best friend was taken into hospital on Boxing Day after the worst lupus attack Eastbourne DGH has ever seen.
"She’s still on life support and has been moved to St Thomas’, where they have the best lupus department in the whole of the U.K.
"Due to COVID, she hadn’t been able to see her doctor for almost three years so her lupus has slowly been getting worse."
Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. It causes joint pains, skin rashes and tiredness.
There is no cure but symptoms can improve if treatment starts early.
Victoria explains why she has set up a GoFundMe page for the family:
"(It's) to help raise money for travel, childcare (she has a 17 month old baby with chronic lung disease who was born at 14 weeks) and hotel stays so her family can be in London with her.
"IF she recovers, the recovery process is going to be very long and we need all the support we can get."
Created just yesterday (Dec 29) Victoria's target of £2,000 has already reached £2,665.
She has since posted a message on the page to thank everyone for their donations so far:
"We are absolutely blown away by the kindness and generosity shown to us and can’t believe that we’ve managed to reach our target in less than 24 hours.
"We started out with a small goal but the reality is that when/if Emma pulls through, we are going to need support more than ever.
"We’re going to keep this page open so that donations can still be made and so we can post daily updates on how Emma is doing.
"Thank you so much from all of us xxx"
The link can be found here: https://gofund.me/3718d7a5
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