Funds pour in to bring home islander with aggressive cancer

Saturday 25 January 2020

Islanders have rallied together to raise over £2,700 to help an islander suffering from an aggressive form of cancer come back to the island to be with his family.

Eric Ericsson – who changed his name from Le Masurier – returned to the island earlier this week from the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre where he was receiving treatment from stage 4 skin cancer and stage 2 cancer of the brain.

As a result of the cancer, Eric was left paralysed from the waist down and requiring 24-hour nursing care.

As he wanted to come home to Jersey, his family decided to transfer his medical care over to Jersey’s hospital. However, the family soon found out they would have to pay for the air ambulance transfer.

Pictured: Eric wanted to come home to be with his family.

The hospital originally provided a quote of around £6,800 for the flight and nurse escort with an additional £600 for the ambulance journeys from hospitals to airports.

Two weeks ago, they therefore set up a crowdfunding page hoping to raise £7,500 to fund the journey. But the family met “further difficulties in fulfilling Eric’s wish to return back to Jersey”, as Alisha Kelly, his niece, wrote on the page.

“…As today the quote stated above was increased to £8,300 and then an hour later increased again to £8,700, it has now been decided he requires a second nurse for the plane journey.

“We continue to spend our time fundraising and seeking support and fighting to bring him home.”

Pictured: Islanders have so far raised over £2,780.

Islanders have rallied to raise £2,785 since the page opened, with some of Eric’s former schoolmates at First Tower School and teammates from St. Andrew’s FC pitching in for him.

A former colleague described him as “such a great guy, always cheerful and caring of others”.

Eric returned to the island earlier this week, where Alisha says his family will be able to visit him regularly.

In the latest update shared on the fundraising page, she wrote: “We are so very grateful for everyone’s kind words of support and generous donations that have gotten us this far. Whilst we still continue to fund raise in order to pay back the cost of his air ambulance transfer, we are just so thankful to have him home where he belongs.”

You can donate to the fundraising page by clicking here.