AN EVENT has helped raise funds for treatment for a woman who is one of only 20 people in the world with a rare form of cancer.

Olivia Fryer, 23, was diagnosed with succinate dehydrogenase last year. The disease has led to her having one of her kidneys removed and has caused her liver to swell.

The Bradford family of Miss Fryer, who lives in Auckland, New Zealand, need to raise £4,600 every six weeks to pay for tablets which will help stop the cancer spreading.

Her grandmother, Maggie Dyson, 75, of Brayshaw Drive, Horton Bank Top, Bradford, attended a fundraising event at Cafe West Healthy Living Centre, Wanstead Crescent, Allerton, yesterday to help raise funds for her treatment.

The event included a raffle and cake sale. Centre bosses said it raised £2,209 to kickstart Miss Fryer’s first round of treatment in New Zealand.

Miss Fryer was born in Halifax and moved to New Zealand eight years ago.

Mrs Dyson thanked everyone who had helped raise funds for her granddaughter’s plight.

She said: “It’s vital she gets this treatment.

“The tablets will give her a boost. It won’t cure the cancer, but it will stop it spreading. If she does not get it, we will lose her.

“It is a very aggressive form of cancer.

“It is so rare that nobody else in either New Zealand or Australia has this form of cancer. She has already had two massive operations in the last 18 months.

“We need to kickstart her treatment.

“There are 11 of us from Olivia’s family going over to New Zealand to see her at the end of this month.

“She would have to take these tablets for the rest of her life. The treatment is at the experimental stage.”

Julie McCann, manager of Cafe West, who survived breast cancer after being diagnosed in 2011, said: “This form of cancer that Olivia has got is still being researched into. It is so rare.”

Mrs Dyson said she used to use the Cafe West centre when she lived nearby. “I still have people that I know that go here,” she said. “I’m choked up by the loveliness of people, they have been so kind.”

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