Please Donate to Help Merlin's Operation

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Dear friends, family, neighbours and all animal lovers,

Today is my birthday and I wish I had entered my new age with good news. Yesterday I was at the vet with my cat Merlin. Unfortunately, she has a Mass Cell tumour on her ear and needs to have an operation soon.

In the past, I have done crowdfunding for the production of my short films. This time I opened this fundraiser for a completely different cause, for my dearest best friend Merlin. She has a cancerous tumour in one ear, we will need to intervene quickly. She needs to be screened for cancer first and this is a very expensive procedure.

I would be grateful if you would like to send us a small gift through this website.

My cat of 14 years, my old friend, Merlin, had a small operation 1.5 years ago. The meat mole on the tip of her ear was removed. Then, when they sent this piece to the lab, they found out that this mole was a cancerous tumour. Our local veterinarian said that if we had known, we would have taken some more of the extension of the removed part. This would have removed as many cancerous cells as possible. But by the time we found out, Merlin had already survived the surgery and was recovering.

Still, we were told that there was a chance it wouldn't recur. Very quickly, in the last days of March this year, another tumour the size of a grape appeared this time on the inside of the ear. This time it must have been quite aggressive as the cells spread and grew rapidly. So Merlin needs to undergo surgery as soon as possible.

Firstly, if I can afford it, I need to have a CT Scan, to see if there is cancer in the rest of her body, and if it is only in the ear area, how far it has spread.

This procedure is quite expensive. I haven't got any figures yet, it would be better to have it done before the operation. CT Scan will cost around £1800.

Apart from that, we know that the operation part will cost around £1700 if we do this with our vets.

If a Specialist Vet does the operation, it costs between £3000-£3500 (I'm going to attach their e-mails to this post).

The figures I received from Specialist Vets show that the total minimum will be £4800. They are much more expensive than normal vets, but they are specialists in oncology so we need them.

In this situation, in this country and the current "invisible crisis" we are experiencing in our field of work, unfortunately, it does not seem possible for me to handle these figures alone. If we start with surgery alone, then the tumour may grow back in the same place, or maybe we may have operated on this little life for nothing.

My cat Tüftüf, Merlin's mother, was 14 years old and we lost her in November 2019 in Istanbul. I had made a great effort to help her recover in her last months, and our vet there was very helpful in that process.

I was very sad when Tüftüf was gone, but Merlin's presence was the biggest support for me. I brought Merlin, Tüftüf's gift, from Istanbul to London at the beginning of 2020. I wanted to insure her here, but she was both old and the meat in her ear started to get worse in a very short time. The vets kept saying insurance companies won't do it for you.

Let this be a suggestion to my other pet owner friends, make sure to get insurance, force it regardless of age, the sooner the better, it is necessary to do it when there is no problem, otherwise they do not cover these problems or they do not insure at all.

If you bring it from TR, get it done on the day you bring it.

We need to move forward in a few weeks because the tumour in the ear is growing very fast. I will act immediately with the first support from here and I will keep you informed.

Thank you very much in advance everyone.

Both for your support and for reading this far :)

I would also like to thank everyone who supported dear Evre in our other GoFundMe fundraiser.

I hope all of our loved ones, all two-handed, two-legged, four-pawed, pink-nosed, furry hairless friends, their families, everyone will be fine...

If anyone wants to contact me, please contact me via social media.

I will send a postcard to those who support more than a certain amount, please write your addresses if you can specify them or send me an e-mail.

I'll come back with more good news in the future, and let's have days when we will collect funds not for health issues, but for pleasant projects again... :)

Thank you.

Love and best wishes,

Gokce

Cover illustration: Evre Clarke