Fundraising soars for Musgrave’s little Ariella
Ariella Cocorozis's tragic story was covered in Berea Mail last week.
FUNDRAISING has almost reached the halfway mark for five-year-old Ariella Cocorozis, who has been diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a rare and highly aggressive brain tumour.
Since Ariella’s tragic story was covered in Berea Mail last week the fundraising through the Backabuddy page has reached over R242 000.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Anastasia Kougianos said Ariella completed her external beam radiation therapy on Monday. So far she had undergone 16 treatments and was able to go home twice over the weekend.
“Ariella has been an amazingly strong little girl throughout the radiation therapy and stolen the hearts of the Parklands radiation team. They threw her a lovely little party on Friday and she was most excited to have a cupcake!” she said.
ALSO READ: Musgrave’s little warrior needs your help
An MRI scan is usually carried out four weeks post radiation due to swelling caused by radiation, which will then show the results of the radiation therapy and tumour shrinkage.
“I spoke to John (father) and he hopes that Ariella will be discharged from hospital this week. The next step for her parents is to chat about the various DIPG experts and treatment options available abroad. Ariella’s progress will impact this decision greatly and we hope the results of her next MRI will be good. Eighty per cent of DIPG patients show good improvement after radiation therapy,” she said.
A Family Fun Day fundraiser event will take place on Saturday, 10 November at Umhlanga Ski Boat Club.
Contact Anastasia Kougianos on 082 892 0721 or akougianos@outlook.com.
Future events are on the Facebook page: For the love of Ariella.
To donate on the BackABuddy page, visit: www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/ariella-help-us-beat-dipg.
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