BRAIN tumour victim Emily Rhodes will begin her journey home to York from Australia today - buoyed by another £1,500 raised for an appeal to help fund the journey.

The 22-year-old, formerly from York’s Monkton Road area, who emigrated with her family to Perth four years ago, is returning to the city to see friends and relatives for one final time.

Friends launched an appeal earlier this year to raise £5,000 towards the cost of the trip.

The appeal total reached £6,500 earlier this month after a series of fundraising activities and a successful family fun day held at New Earswick Sports Club on Sunday raised another £1,500.

“It went really well,” said Louise Carr, who helped organised the day. “What a day! Such a great atmosphere, fantastic weather and lots of money raised.

“We couldn’t have wished for a better day and to raise £1,500 - that was brilliant!”

Emily’s flight alone is costing £1,000 with another £3,600 needed to pay for insurance.

Her mother Joanne said on Facebook that she wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended the fun day.

“Watching all the videos of the day has been one of those moments in life when you realise you are truly blessed with friends and strangers willing to come together to help make a wish come true,” she said.

“This has given us the strength to keep fighting to get Emily the future she truly deserves and kick cancer into touch once and for all.

“This fight is not over just yet. All of you have given us the strength to carry on and we can’t and never will be able to thank you enough. Will be home soon.”

Emily posted: “What can I say? You are all amazing, thank you so much to everyone who has helped me to get home. I have two days and that’s it. You’re all my family and I love you all so much. Can’t wait to be back home and see you all.”

Joanne said the family was due to leave Perth at 4pm today UK time and land in the UK at 1pm tomorrow.

She said Emily’s oncologist had called to say she still had a low level of white blood cells in her body, which help fight infection, and so she would have to wear a face mask on the plane.

“We are going to see if we can get her upgraded for medical reasons, because there’s a high risk of her catching an infection,” she said.