Lotto millionaire Gillian Bayford has donated a brand new car in a bid to find a cure for an Angus youngster.
Family friend Gillian has given Blake McMillan’s mum Jenny the brand new Audi as a raffle prize to raise funds for research into the rare disease.
Five-year-old Blake, from Carnoustie, suffers from MECP2 duplication syndrome and requires 24-hour care as he cannot walk, talk or eat.
Gillian – who became the winner of Britain’s second biggest Lotto win when she and her ex-husband scooped £148 million in 2012 – previously bought a specially-adapted house for the family.
People can go online to buy a virtual £25 ticket for the raffle to win the Audi A1 Sport, which will be drawn in December and can be won by anyone is the UK.
Jenny said: “My friend, Gillian Bayford, has extremely generously donated a brand new AUDI A1 Sport 1.0 TFSI 5-speed (67 plate) for me to raffle off to raise funds for research into MECP2 Duplication Syndrome which is the dreadful, cruel, severely life-limiting condition that my wonderful little boy, Blake, suffers from.
“We are currently less than two years away from clinical trials and need to fund the rest of the research to get us there.
“The research so far is proving very exciting and we hope to have full symptom reversal with the proposed treatment.
“I watch my little boy suffer every single day and it breaks my heart.
“I watch his big sister play like an only child because her brother cannot play with her, talk to her, or laugh at her funny, quirky ways.
“She loves him dearly and wants nothing more than to play properly with him and of course, grow old with him and look after me in my old age.
“I have been fundraising since Blake was a few months old and between research and Blake’s personal needs, have raised few hundred thousand.
“I really need to keep going so Blake can at least have a chance at a better, more fulfilling life.”
Jenny said Blake is “utterly perfect” but she can’t help but think about all the things he misses out on in life by being “trapped in a body that doesn’t work”.
He recently had life-saving treatment at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh after becoming seriously unwell following an operation.
Jenny added: “I long to hear his voice, feel his little chubby arms pull me in for a cuddle, to see him eating his favourite milky bar pudding and smack his lips in enjoyment.
“I want to hear him fight with Faye, moan at me for being embarrassing.
“I want so much for him and I don’t intend to give up striving for the best for my boy.”
The raffle can be found by going to www.justgiving.com/fundraising/blakea1.
