An eight-year-old Worcester boy who beat cancer will be going on a dream holiday thanks to a city firm.
Oscar Saxelby-Lee underwent life-saving treatment in Singapore two years ago following a £600,000 crowdfunding campaign, becoming only the second child in the world to undergo CAR-T therapy.
He was declared cancer-free later that year and is now “thriving”, according to mum Olivia Saxelby.
But plans to make Oscar's dreams come true with a much-needed holiday to visit friends in Australia hit a snag as the St John's family was unable to find travel insurance for him because of his medical history.
Olivia admitted she and partner Jamie Lee were beginning to think the trip was unachievable.
“We spent long hours trying to find a company that would insure Oscar, but it truly was proving to be almost impossible to find cover for him,” she said.
“It was either due to his cancer diagnosis or the side effects he continues to endure that made it so difficult for anywhere to help us.
“I just couldn’t help feeling completely and utterly exhausted from it all.
“Then came a Facebook message from a lovely lady called Kerry Hopkins,” said Olivia.
“Kerry had reached out to us on behalf of the Worcester company SJL Insurance, who said they would do their absolute best in helping us find the best cover out there for our boy. And they did just that.”
Blown away by kindness
SJL Insurance not only found a company to insure Oscar - OK To Travel Ltd - but also decided to pay his insurance fee through their charitable foundation, the SJL Foundation.
“We spoke through everything and declared all of Oscar’s medical needs with a fabulous operations assistant called Reece Turner and within 24 hours, Oscar was given the all-clear to be insured by them,” she said.
“We were absolutely blown away by the kindness we were shown and didn’t quite know what to say. They have made what seemed impossible, possible.”
SJL insurance owner Simon Lancaster said: "It is difficult to source travel insurance when a traveller has complex pre-existing medical conditions.
"However, the senior managers in our team sprang into action and I’m delighted to say managed to assist in sourcing an adequate and specialist policy that allows Oscar and his family to travel.
"Not content with this the team then asked me if we could also pay the premium for the policy out of the SJL foundation, to which I happily agreed."
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