Man, 18, raises £500,000 for leukaemia treatment

A young man who was told his leukaemia was incurable has used crowdfunding to raise £500,000 in just six days to pay for his treatment.

Alviar Cohen, 18, of Redbourn, near St Albans, was diagnosed with the blood cancer three years ago.

He had chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, but was told by doctors in January he had "run out of options" and had "limited time left".

Now he has raised enough money to have pioneering treatment in Singapore.

Mr Cohen's fundraising page reached its £500,000 target with the help of donations from 17,000 people, with £13,000 the largest single donation.

Over the last three years Mr Cohen has been through several rounds of chemotherapy, two courses of radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant from his twin brother Justin.

He will be part of the trial of CAR-T therapy, the same leukaemia treatment given to Oscar Saxelby-Lee, from Worcester and Zac Oliver, from Shropshire.

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

Mr Cohen, who has just won a place at Oxford University to study biomedical sciences, said he had been "overwhelmed by the support".

"It's incredible. I am at a loss for words. I did not expect to receive so much in donations in such a short amount of time," he said.

"It has been overpowering. I'd like to say, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you'. It has been an amazing experience to see so many people who don't know me come together to donate."

He also thanked his school, Roundwood Park, and University College London Hospital, which has treated Mr Cohen.

Mr Cohen said one of the reasons he wanted to study biomedical sciences was "to help fight diseases" and "perhaps to help give others a chance for a miracle cure".

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]