A grieving family struck by a double tragedy have raised almost £70,000 to pay for a young woman to travel abroad for potentially life-saving treatment.
Relatives of Abigail Cox hope to raise enough money to send the 21-year-old to a specialist centre in Houston in the hope that the rare form of bone cancer she is battling can be cured.
She was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma in February 2014 and has been undergoing treatment in Edinburgh’s Western General and Glasgow’s Beatson Centre.
But it is a difficult type of the disease to treat and medics have advised Abigail, of Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire, that her best hope is to travel to a state-of-the-art facility in America.
Abigail was given the go ahead to be treated at the clinic last week but within hours of receiving the good news, her father Gary Cox and his wife Dawn, were dealt a devastating blow with the death of her teenager brother.
Tragic Edward, 19, who also has a teenage sister Olivia, died unexpectedly at the family home only hours after his great uncle Ian Barclay, who was recently injured in a farming accident in nearby Meikle Wartle, passed away.
His sudden death is being treated as unexplained.
But despite being in the midst of devastating heartbreak, her family have renewed efforts to raise as much money as they can to pay for Abigail’s expensive medical bills abroad.
Abigail and Edward’s cousin, Karina Cable, launched a JustGiving page which has pulled in 68,759 pounds with most of the money being donated over the past week.
Ms Cable thanked the local community for all their support to help give her family a “positive outlook” for Abigail’s future.
Writing in a post on social media, she said: “As anyone can imagine Gary Cox, Dawn Cox, Abigail Jennifer Cox, and Olivia Cox have been going through a massive amount of emotional distress with everything that has happened, but to see family, friends and the community pull together to support Abigail on her road to recovery has been something that they would never have thought could happen.
“Abigail’s treatment in America can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of pounds, so you can imagine the heartbreak and distress this has caused them as a family stepping into the unknown to want nothing but the best chance for their daughter.
“Although nothing will take away the heartbreak of the recent loss of their son Edward Cox the support from everyone for Abigail has given the family such a positive outlook for the future of their daughter as well as a glimmer of hope to mend the wounds that have been made by the tragedy just only last week.”
The popular family are well known within the community due to Abigail’s dad running Edwards nightclub in their hometown of Inverurie and also the Northern Hotel in Aberdeen.
Ms Cable said her family hoped all the generous donations would help Abigail beat the odds and come out of her treatment as a healthy young woman.
She added: “With many of us in good health being able to wake up in the morning and go about our daily life seems a normal task and one we may take for granted at times.
“For Abigail this task is far from a reality and this is what we are trying to change for her as well as for her family to watch their daughter grow up and enjoy all the things that we all continue to enjoy each day.”