Cllr Peter Wallace wants Dover general election candidates to help cancer girl Kelly Turner
10:00, 21 April 2017
updated: 10:33, 21 April 2017
A councillor is is challenging all general election candidates help cancer teenager Kelly Turner.
Peter Wallace, who is applying to fight the Dover seat for Labour, wants rivals to use their election leaflets delivered to homes to also highlight the 17-year-old’s plight.
He will do the same if selected.
Kelly needs to raise £1 million for full treatment in the United States for a rare form of cancer.
Cllr Wallace said: “This election is seen by many as a complete waste of time with no winners but I’d like to see Kelly Turner a winner from this. If I’m selected I’d like to use it to raise awareness for Kelly.
“Every candidate will be allowed to send a leaflet for free to every household in the constituency. That’s a great opportunity to raise awareness for Kelly and reach people she may not have been able to reach before.
“On one side of the leaflet I’d have my information and Kelly can have the other half.
"If that helps Kelly reach her goal, then I think we will find one good reason we’re all happy this election happened.”
Cllr Wallace, a Dover district and town councillor, applies this weekend to the regional Labour Party to stand in the constituency.
He may find out if he is successful by Wednesday.
He explains that the leaflets would probably be the cheapest and easiest way to deliver her campaign across the whole constituency.
It would also mean no money spent, which could to to Kelly's fundraising appeal.
Cllr Wallace, town and district member for Maxton, Elms Vale and Priory, says it would also be the one issue that all rival candidates could agree on.
Kelly has a condition called desmoplastic small round cell tumour and was given two years to live in October 2015.
She has recently been able to buy more time by chemotherapy at the Royal Marsden Hospital in south London shrinking and stabilising tumours.
But the NHS is not going to carry out the full surgery and immunotherapy to try to completely free her of her illness.
Instead the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York has agreed to do it but at a total cost of about £1 million.
There have been constant fundraising efforts for Kelly since last summer and the figure raised by last Friday was £521,650 according to her JustGiving page.
This is 52% of her target.
Money can also be given online at justgiving.com/fundraising/kelly-turner2000 or to the NatWest Bank at Dover.
The Kelly TurnerFundraising account number is 39767000, sort code 60 07 04.
See also next Wednesday’s Dover and East Kent Mercuries for the regular list of fundraising events you can join.