Friends of a festival-lover who has been told he has weeks left to live have surpassed their fundraising goal to get him to Glastonbury “one last time”. By Sunday evening the fundraiser had hit its £12,000 target and continued to climb, exceeding £13,000 by early Monday morning.
Nigel Stonehouse, 58, a former bricklayer from Hartlepool, was diagnosed with cancer of the kidney in mid-May, but it has spread to his lungs, with doctors telling him it is incurable, friends say. He had been due to go to Glastonbury this week but could not travel without medical help, so his friends launched a fundraiser to pay for a helicopter to fly him there from North Tees hospital.
Between the hours of Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening, the fundraiser jumped from £9,000 to £12,000 from more than 800 donors. Musician Fatboy Slim, who is performing at the Somerset festival this year, is among those backing the cause and urging his followers to do likewise on social media.
