A family are raffling off their £185,000 (Dh930,000) home in the UK for just £2.50 a ticket to secure a sale and help raise funds for a charity close to their hearts.
Samantha and Steven Wilkinson, who lived in Dubai between 2015 and 2018, recently celebrated the two-year mark of their daughter being cancer-free.
In 2019, Oonagh, 3, was diagnosed with stage 1 neuroblastoma – a rare cancer that mostly affects young children.
Last December, the couple, who have three children, put their two-bedroom house in Cumbria, in the north-west of England, up for raffle.
With the raffle coming to an end in 13 days, they still need to sell 47,300 tickets to reach their 120,000 target.
The family are raising funds for Neuroblastoma UK, a charity dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.
"If we reach the target, we will be able to hand over £40,000 to the charity, pay the fees for the new owner and give them £5,000 to furnish their new home," Ms Wilkinson told The National.
“We still have a lot of dear friends in Dubai and we have had huge support from the community there, despite being thousands of miles away from the place we used to call home.”
Mr Wilkinson worked as a fire protection officer in Dubai, and still works the sector, while Mrs Wilkinson is a stay-at-home mum.
In late 2018, shortly after the family had returned to Britain from Dubai, Oonagh started showing signs of illness.
Ms Wilkinson, 37, said she initially put it down to Oonagh, who was just 18 months old at the time, adjusting to the cold British winter.
But from New Year's Day 2019, the family spent more than three weeks in a children's hospital in Manchester, in northern England, after doctors found tumours on her left kidney and spine.
“Our lives were turned upside down when we were told she had neuroblastoma,” Ms Wilkinson said.
"We were a normal family and didn't know anyone around us that had dealt with childhood cancer. It was like an out-of-body experience.
"With this type of cancer, most children and babies are diagnosed at stage 4 – the late stage of the disease. We were so lucky we caught it early."
Oonagh underwent an operation to remove both tumours in March 2019, and scans three months later showed no signs of the disease.
“We couldn’t have asked for anything more," Ms Wilkinson said.
For two years, Oonagh has been undergoing scans every three months to ensure no tumour regrowth.
Last week, the family were told she could reduce the frequency of scans to every six months, so they are “heading in the right direction”.
The idea of raffling off their house came after Ms Wilkinson was inspired by a family who successfully sold their house and raised money for charity before emigrating to Australia.
“Because of the pandemic, so many people have suffered, especially small charities like Neuroblastoma UK,” she said.
“In October, the charity made the decision to halt spending grants for 2021 and possibly 2022, as their budget was hit hard due to a lack of fundraising during the lockdown.
“We need to move to a bigger home because our family has expanded over the past two years, so we thought why not try and secure a sale and raise money for the charity that was so supportive to us during our ordeal with Oonagh.”
If all the tickets do not sell, a winner will still be drawn and they will get 75 per cent of the pot money raised, with an additional five per cent going to the charity.
The remaining cash will be paid to the company organising the raffle and the Wilkinsons will keep the house.
So far, about £181,000 has been raised from the raffle.
