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8 Tuesday <strong>July</strong> <strong>25</strong> <strong>2017</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
SELWYN TIMES<br />
News<br />
$1.5m donation fails to surface for Maddie<br />
• By Gabrielle Stuart<br />
THE WOMAN who made a<br />
$1.5million pledge that could<br />
help save West Melton teenager<br />
Maddie Collins’ life has gone to<br />
ground.<br />
Maddie’s family have not heard<br />
from the woman since Thursday<br />
- when The star newspaper<br />
revealed that the woman’s pledge<br />
was likely to be bigus.<br />
Maddie’s family are devastate<br />
dthe woman is unlikely to have<br />
the money.<br />
A middle-aged woman told<br />
the family she would donate<br />
the money from a $42 million<br />
inheritance, enough to pay for<br />
Maddie’s treatment for kidney<br />
failure.<br />
The woman visited the family’s<br />
home to discuss the donation<br />
and continually phones and<br />
Facebook messages them.<br />
But Maddie’s mother Sarah<br />
Manson Collins now believes the<br />
offer is false.<br />
It has distressed the family<br />
considerably.<br />
“It’s that utter sense of false<br />
hope. When we met her we<br />
thought all our stresses and<br />
worries were gone,” Mrs Manson<br />
Collins told The Star.<br />
“We thought we’ll get the<br />
transplant, and by next year<br />
Maddie will be fighting fit and<br />
able to get on with life,” she said.<br />
Maddie, 13, has kidney failure<br />
with potentially life-threatening<br />
complications. Her family has<br />
been involved in a high profile<br />
fundraising campaign to get<br />
her a kidney transplant and follow<br />
up treatment in the United<br />
States.<br />
They visited the Baltimore<br />
hospital where the operation will<br />
take place last month and were<br />
told the cost had jumped from<br />
$350,000 to more than $700,000.<br />
About $170,000 has so far been<br />
raised for the St Margaret’s College<br />
year 9 student.<br />
The family was approached by<br />
the woman via Facebook early<br />
last month who asked to meet<br />
in person at their West Melton<br />
home to give them a cheque.<br />
The woman spent an hour at<br />
their home but didn’t have the<br />
cheque, saying she needed to<br />
organise it with the bank.<br />
Since then the woman has<br />
made many more promises to<br />
pay, which haven’t eventuated.<br />
The latest was on Wednesday<br />
morning when the woman said<br />
on Facebook Messenger she had<br />
arranged the bank transfer last<br />
Monday, but could not check it<br />
DISAPPOINTED: Animal-lover Maddie Collins, pictured with<br />
her pony, Trig, and mum, Sarah Manson Collins, has been left<br />
feeling shattered after a bogus $1.5m donation pledge, which<br />
would have paid for the kidney treatment she needs. PHOTO:<br />
MARTIN HUNTER<br />
as she said she was on holiday in<br />
Dunedin.<br />
In the message she told Mrs<br />
Manson Collins: “A transfer did<br />
go out but not too sure where.<br />
“Sorry about this mucking<br />
around it would be stressful time<br />
for you all. Not just Maddie but<br />
the whole family.”<br />
Mrs Manson Collins sai dthey<br />
had not heard again from the<br />
woman.<br />
The constant hope of the donation<br />
was cruel.<br />
“That could mean my daughter’s<br />
life,” said Mrs Manson<br />
Collins.<br />
She said the woman seemed<br />
genuine when she visited the<br />
house. She was aged in her 50s.<br />
She was completely bewildered<br />
about why the woman would do<br />
that to them, or what she was<br />
trying to achieve.<br />
The family are looking to get<br />
a kidney transplant at the John<br />
Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore,<br />
as there is more chance of getting<br />
a donated kidney, and the treatment<br />
offered there would make<br />
it more likely Maddie’s body<br />
would accept it, even if it was not<br />
a perfect match. Maddie’s father,<br />
Adam Collins, donated one of<br />
his kidneys to her in 2012, but<br />
her body rejected it.<br />
This year Maddie was told the<br />
daily dialysis treatment she is on<br />
has put so much strain on her<br />
heart, she was at risk of a heart<br />
attack. That made the need for a<br />
kidney transplant more urgent.<br />
Attempts by The Star to contact<br />
the woman have been futile.<br />
But a family member tracked<br />
down said she had been known<br />
to have “told some whoppers” in<br />
the past.<br />
He was unaware of the $42<br />
million inheritance.<br />
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