Ice Hockey digs deep for Millie

The fund for Milton Keynes schoolgirl Millie D’Cruz to have the medical treatment she desperately needs is almost £1,700 better off thanks to the generosity of MK Lightning Ice Hockey Club, their supporters, and rink owners Planet Ice. Six year-old Millie suffers from the incurable genetic disease Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) - a condition so rare that only a handful of people in the UK have it.  MLD attacks the body’s central nervous system, inhibiting growth of the fatty covering which acts as an insulator for nerve fibres in the brain.  Without treatment, Millie’s life expectancy is no more than ten to fifteen years.  Treatment to slow the disease’s progression is available in Holland – but at a cost of £200,000. The club’s general manager Vito Rausa, head coach Nick Poole and top scorer Andre Smulter learned of Millie’s illness when they visited her school, St Mary Magdalene’s in Milton Keynes, as part of the MK Lightning Schools’ Enterprise Scheme.  Following the visit, Nick Poole immediately contacted Millie’s parents Twila and Phil to offer MK Lightning’s help. As part of the Schools Enterprise Scheme, Millie’s schools promoted and sold tickets for Lightning’s game against Guildford Flames on 12 February.  Nomally the school would keep 50 per cent of the total proceeds but on this occasion St Marys, MK Lightning and Planet Ice all donated their shares of the proceeds - totalling some £300 – straight to the fund for Millie’s treatment.  A prize draw at the game for an Olivetti netbook computer and case raised around £500, bucket collections at the game raised another £300 - and one individual benefactor was so moved by Millie’s plight that they donated a cheque for £500 within minutes of hearing about her illness. Millie and her parents Twila and Phil attended Saturday’s game at Planet Ice with Millie’s brothers and sisters, the chairman of the fund’s board of trustees, Bob Stott, and several close friends of the family – as well as many of Millie's school mates from St Mary Magdalene school and a film crew from German TV station RTL, who had followed the family for that day filming footage for a documentary about Millie’s battle with MLD. The generosity of the supporters of both teams at Saturday’s fixture had amazed everyone involved, said Vito Rausa: “It’s absolutely fantastic to have raised so much from one fixture, and we’re so pleased to have been able to help,” he said.  “We know that money is tight for everyone at the moment, so to be able to hand the family a cheque for nearly £1,700 is incredible – a real testament to the generosity of supporters of both teams. We also want to thank Guildford Flames for agreeing to highlight Millie’s cause on their own website in the run-up to the game. “On behalf of MK Lightning and Planet Ice, I want to thank everyone who either bought a ticket for the match through St Mary Magdalene School, bought a grid square to win the netbook computer, or donated to the collections.   We really do appreciate your generosity and we know it means the world to Millie’s family too”. To find out more about Millie’s illness or to donate online, visit http://www.helpmillie.co.uk