Corby's biggest EVER birthday party sees thousands show their love for little Florence Bark

Thousands of people across Corby and beyond have wrapped their proverbial arms around a little girl who is suffering from a rare form of leukemia today.

People around the town, the county and even into neighbouring counties, have come to school and work dressed in rainbow colours to raise money to mark Florence Bark’s sixth birthday.

The Oakley Vale Primary pupil has acute myeloid leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. Since her parents Andy – headteacher at Kingswood Primary – and Stacey who works at the 8-8, appealed last month for locals to raise cash to pay for pricey Car T-Cell therapy, almost £330,000 has been gathered on two fundraising pages. Many thousands more are expected to be raised by tonight, when schools add their own totals to the pot.

Hundreds of children also made birthday cards for Florence, some of which she has managed to see from her hospital bed.

Speaking today on the group’s new Facebook page, the team running Florence’s fundraising campaign said: “The team are absolutely blown away by all of the messages, posts, well wishes that Florence has received already & it is only just lunchtime!

“What an amazing town Corby is, we are so thankful & proud of everyone who has helped.”

Andy works at the Greenwood Academies Trust school Kingswood Primary Academy and children at all Corby’s purple schools have gone all out to raise as much money as possible.

Chrissie Barrington, Executive Principal at Kingswood Primary Academy and Hazel Leys Academy, said: “Today has been a fantastic opportunity for not only our pupils, parents and staff, but the wider community to come together to raise money for this important cause. We all care deeply about Florence and her family and are doing everything we can to support them during this incredibly difficult time.

“Across many local schools today, thousands of children have been taking part in mufti days, bake sales and more to fundraise and we are very proud of our pupils for really helping lead the way with these initiatives.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to not only our pupils, but our parents, carers and families who have so kindly donated, our staff for making these events possible and our community and local businesses for doing all you can to get involved.”

You can donate to this page which has charitable status, or this Justgiving page. All the money raised will go into Florence’s pot.