Race for life for Carluke woman Joan Purdie

As reported in the Gazette, the 53-year-old wife of veteran stock car racing star Kenny Purdie was diagnosed last year with a rare and particularly aggressive form of the disease, so expensive to combat that the NHS won’t cover the costs of £9000-per-session treatments she will require to boost tenfold her chances of survival.

The NHS’s drug and treatment assessors NICE are expected to approve the funding of the treatment later this year — but that could 
come too later for Joan Purdie, and her family along with a legion of friends and supporters.

They are all too aware of the need, prompting the local fund-raising campaign to find the £300,000 to cover the whole course of the treatment which would give her a near-evens chance of survival.

The campaign got off to a fantastic start late last year with a barn dance and raffle being held which raised - in a single night - an amazing £62,000.

With time being of the essence to raise the cash needed, Kenny’s many, many friends and associates in the Scottish motorsport scene are throwing their lot in with the campaign, expanding it from a local to a national cause.

On Saturday, February 6, the proceeds of the whole race meeting at Lochgelly in Fife will be donated to the Joan Purdie Appeal.

The HRP Lochgelly Raceway will be the venue for a race card that includes National Micro Bangers, Stock Cars (Kenny’s speciality), Hot Rods, Ministox and Ninja Karts.

Said a spokesman for HRP: “All proceeds from the event are going directly to the Purdie family to support Joan’s treatment.

“When it comes to taking care of our own, we know that the entire stock car family will unite behind Joan and Kenny and support this event in huge numbers which we hope will show the Purdie family that we are united in supporting them at this difficult time as well as easing what is a huge financial burden.”

The importance of this and other events is illustrated by the hard medical facts that, without the special medical treatment, Joan has a small chance of survival running at around three to four per cent.

However, the new procedures would boost massively her chances to up to 44 per cent.

The Purdie family has once again asked the Gazette to pass on their deepest gratitude to all the many folk backing the effort to give Joan a future.