Family struggles to find travel insurance for cancer surviving child’s dream trip to Australia

By SWNS Staff

Cancer hero Oscar Saxelby-Lee is facing fresh heartbreak as his family struggles to insure him for a dream trip to Australia - despite being in remission for TWO years.

The eight-year-old won his nation’s heart in his battle against leukemia after raising enough money for life-saving treatment in Singapore in 2020.

Oscar became only the second child in the world to undergo CAR-T therapy with the help of a £600,000 ($786,240) crowdfunding campaign.

Two years on, his mom Olivia Saxelby, 26, says Oscar "is thriving" and the family were looking forward to a much-needed holiday to Australia next month.

Oscar Saxelby-Lee, with his mom and dad during his time having treatment in Singapore.(Olivia Saxelby via SWNS)

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But after booking tickets to Sydney, Olivia and partner Jamie Lee, 29, were left devastated when nobody would offer Oscar travel insurance due to his cancer history.

Oscar does have long-term side effects from the treatment he underwent to save his life but Olivia says they manage his conditions perfectly well.

They have now been left in limbo as multiple insurance companies and brokers refuse to medically insure Oscar's eagerly-awaited trip.

The family, of Worcester, England now face the prospect of Oscar not being able to travel despite it being the youngster's "dream" to see his best friends in Australia.

Olivia said: "I'm not angry, but I'm just really frustrated. After everything he has gone through Oscar absolutely deserves this trip.

"His best friends now live in Sydney and they Facetime every night, he has wanted to go to Australia ever since they moved just before he had his op in Singapore.

"To have that dream potentially taken away from him after all he has endured is just really upsetting.

"I know there are bigger things happening in the world at the moment and we even thought should we go but with Oscar we consider time as precious and you have to seize these opportunities.

"His consultant has even written a document declaring that he is safe to travel to Australia but even that is not enough.

"But it's just another trauma for us. He has been saving up his own money for this trip - he has been putting his pennies aside and has about £120 ($157).

"He is very aware of what he's been through and this would break his heart. I haven't told him yet because I'm still hopeful there's a way past this.

"He is doing brilliantly, we wouldn't be taking him if he wasn't but we just need that travel insurance sorted.

"It is never plain sailing with Oscar, it can get very disheartening."

Oscar, nicknamed Ozzy, was just four-years-old when he was diagnosed with an aggressive blood cancer in December 2018.

Full-time carer Olivia and painter and decorator Jamie launched an appeal for stem cell donors after doctors warned he had just three months to start treatment.

A record-breaking 4,855 volunteers queued in the rain after Oscar's Pitmaston Primary School in Worcester opened as a testing center in March 2019.

More than 10,000 people were tested across the UK until a match was found and he underwent an operation but he faced a further blow when the cancer returned.

Some of the 4,800 donors that queued through the gates of Pitmaston Primary School, Worcester. (David Dunbar via SWNS)

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A crowdfunding drive then raised £600,000 to fly him to Singapore for pioneering treatment not available on the NHS.

The treatment is specifically developed for individual patients and involves reprogramming their immune system cells, which are then used to target the cancer.

Three months later he returned back home to St John's, Worcester before he was finally declared cancer free in October 2020.

He has been left with ongoing side effects including an iron overload and kidney impairment but his mom says he has been doing "amazingly well" ever since.

Olivia added: "He's gone from being told he might never be able to walk to running around like any normal eight-year-old boy.

"His rehabilitation was always expected to be long process but actually he's gone above and beyond, moving mountains.

"Although he is in remission he does have ongoing side effects. He has an iron overload which means infusions every 12 hours.

"On paper he has got kidney impairment and brain damage too but you would not really know it because he is absolutely thriving.

"So when it comes to filling out a document, these are things you have to declare but to see him now you would not think he is unwell.

"He is somewhere in between if anything. He is not technically well because of the difficulties he still has but we would not say he is an unwell child either.

"He has to have this stamp, this label, which means getting travel insurance has just been impossible.

"Insurance companies even insure terminal patients so we're just a bit shocked that nobody will help Oscar.

"We must be into double figures now for the different companies and brokers we've tried. It's just be a nightmare and another rollercoaster for us as a family.

"There are numerous charities trying to help us but we're just getting nowhere at the moment and we want to take our little boy on the holiday he has earned."

Olivia also took to social media to appeal for help on the "Hand In Hand for Oscar" page, which was set up to update followers on his progress.

She wrote: "Oscar is almost 2 years in remission from childhood cancer.

"He’s been left with life long difficulties and continues to challenge the side effects of intense treatments that saved his life.

"Oscar’s dream is to travel to Australia to see his best friends. He’s waited so long for this dream to become reality. A dream that can come true with the help of you.

"The boarders [sic] are open, the flights are booked but I cannot find anyone anywhere that will insure him medically.

"I am pleading for our amazing community to help us in finding some sort of cover for Oscar to travel abroad from the U.K.

"He deserves a chance of security after all he has been through. There has already been a price for his life, haven’t we fought enough already?

"Please share and help a desperate Mother who doesn’t know where else to turn."