Five-year-old cancer victim’s Paris dream holiday cancelled due to illness

By Jacqueline Fanchini

A FIVE-year-old cancer victim has become too ill to travel, just days after his parents raised enough money to take him to Disneyland.

Brit Michelle Bennett, 40, and Dutch husband Arjan Van’t Noordende, 39, raised more than €5,200 in the first five days of an appeal launched to help grant son Alex his wish to visit Disneyland Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

The appeal – launched on September 30 on crowd-funding website Gofundme.com – has now raised €5,950.

“Alex has wanted to visit Disneyland since he saw the film Ratatouille, and we decided it was finally time to grant him his wish,” said father Arjan.

Marbella-born Alex has been battling RMS – a sarcoma type of cancer – since he was diagnosed at the age of two.

The family were due to travel to France from October 12 to 17, but Alex has now been on morphine for a week while undergoing treatment at Malaga’s Materno-Infantil Hospital.

“He has not eaten for nearly a week, so we are keen to get him off the morphine so that he is awake enough to start eating again and strengthen up,” said Arjan.

As well as the huge support from family, friends and members of the public, the family had also been given discounts for the Marriott hotel on the Champs-Elysees to help fund the trip.

The family are ‘heart-broken’ that Alex has now become too ill to go on the holiday, particularly after receiving so much support.

“You try to be hopeful, but now he’s so incredibly weak we can’t travel. We don’t want to see him in pain,” added Arjan.

The family will now use the money to put towards Alex’s treatment instead, but hope to be able to take him on his dream holiday when he is feeling better.

But for now what is most important for them is to find specialists and raise funds for Alex’s treatment.

To donate and for more information go to http://www.gofundme.com/alexanderfundorg