Baby’s life is on the line

The life of Leah Xuereb, a three-year old girl suffering from a very rare stomach cancer, is hanging in balance while her parents try to collect €245,000 for the only treatment in the world that can save her life. “We are desperate. If we do not manage to raise the money, Leah will die,” said her mother Zhana Xuereb. Leah’s cancer is tripling every week and if she is not flown out to a specialised US hospital quickly – as recommended by London’s Great Ormond Street hospital – she will not be eligible for treatment. Leah is only three years old but she has spent half her life at hospital, in Malta and recentlyin London. She does not know any better, said her mother, as she explained even when she is well enough to play games, her daughter pretends that she is packing luggage and tells her: “Mummy, I’m going to hospital”. “It breaks my heart,” said Ms Xuereb, who has been at Leah’s bedside since their ordeal started. Her husband, Jonathan, who runs a restaurant in Mġarr, Gozo, has now joined his wife and daughter in the UK for the last leg of treatment. The girl has had to endure treatments most adults would be unable to witness, let alone endure. At Great Ormond, Leah received 11...