Emergency Flights from UK to NZ and back again

Comedian James Nokise was in the UK from June, having done the Glastonbury Festival and getting ready to do 3 seperate shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, including his debut solo hour - So So Gangsta - at the legendary comedy venue, The Stand.

But in July he received a phone call from home saying his step-mother (his father's wife of 29 years, and the mother of all his siblings) had only weeks to live due to terminal cancer. The Nokise's are not a wealthy family, so Rosalyn thought she could hold on till he was back. However the rest of the family disagreed. They emptied accounts and maxed credit cards to get a return flight from the UK to NZ and back again for Edinburgh.

James had eight days in the hospice with Rosalyn, then left for the Edinburgh Festival. She died 10 days in.

What is being asked for is help to recuperate the costs of those emergency flights. The amount is $2737.00 NZ. It is only for the cost of the flights, and does not include interest.

"Why go back to Edinburgh, why not cancel?"

2 reasons:

1) Rosalyn wanted James to be in Edinburgh, and was determined that he go back and perform. She believed in the opportunity and knew how hard he had worked for it.

2) She was right. James' was committed to three different shows (So So Gangsta, Puppet Fiction, Poetry Can F*ck Off), which we're all successes and have lead to future festival bookings, an invite to bring a new work to The Stand in 2017, an appearance on the BBC, an offer of a season in London at The Museum of Comedy, and future work in Australia and New Zealand as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0444tdl

However, after funeral arrangements, there is still the debt of the flights, and success in the arts doesn't always mean success in the bank account.

This is an extraordinary and one-off ask for help.