Mum 'overwhelmed' as Ayr community raise funds for schoolgirl living with brain aneurysm

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Ayr’s spirited community have rallied round a brave girl living with a terrifying brain aneurysm due to a one of a kind illness.

Healthcare and emergency heroes, teachers and fitness fanatics all dug deep for seven-year-old Jessica Entwistle.The courageous primary school pupil is gearing up for a visit to a specialist unit at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital where top medics will try and work out how to treat her.The youngster has been diagnosed with the ‘only known case’ of a disease caused by a genetic mutation, MAP2K1.Jessica suffers debilitating symptoms which stop her from completing a full day at school.Ahead of her trip to London – a host of kind-hearted individuals, organisations and businesses have mucked in to show their support.In one weekend more than £1,500 was raised thanks to a host of events across the town – with donations still pouring in.Jesscia’s family mum, Cheryl Entwistle, dad, Thomas and big brother Aaron were shown community support over a fantastic fundraising weekend last Friday and Saturday (August, 26 and 27).Firefighters downed hoses and picked up sponges as they polished motors to coin it in for Jessica’s cause at Ayr fire station.Young Jessica joined the crew at the station as locals dropped in for the emergency service’s car wash.

Kerry McCrone, watch commander of blue watch at Ayr fire station told Ayrshire Live: “My daughter Eve is best friends with Jess – they go to school together. “I’ve seen what Cheryl and Thomas, and the whole family are going through.“We wanted to do something for the whole family, to try and make it into a fun couple of days for them, to try and shelter Jessica from it all.“We had our car wash coming up to raise money for the Firefighter Charity, I asked the