Carrack's Cancer Battle-The 4 Peaks

Rachel Carrack's Cancer Battle 4 Peaks Challenge 2017

Due to Rachel's cancer returning and her being back in treatment, we have decided to try and help her pay for her life saving treatment in Germany by challenging ourselves to one of the most gruelling outdoor pursuits we could think of.

The National Four Peaks Challenge will see us attempt to climb the four tallest peaks in the UK in under 40 hours. In total there will be around 43km of mountain walking, and 4257m of ascent. 

These are the Peaks 

Sleive Donard (850m) - N. Ireland
Ben Nevis (1,344m) - Scotland
Scafell Pike  (978m) - England
Snowden (1,085m) - Wales

As a group of 10 friends we are aiming to complete this challenge starting on the 7th April 2017 and finishing the day after. We have all known each other since school and are all friends of Rachel and her family.  

We have tried to make this as challenging as possible to encourage all you amazing people to dig as deep as you can to help this incredible lady and her children have a happy and healthy future, and to let Rachel know we are all rooting for her every step of the way!! 

Our goal is £6000 to go towards Rachels treatment that is not available on the NHS or in the UK. 

Please read Rachels story below for some more background on her and her fight so far.

Rachel is a 34 year old woman, ICU nurse, mum of 2 amazing children, wife, sister, daughter, niece, granddaughter, cousin, friend and all round amazing person, (but I am biased being her older sister).

After the birth of her second baby Rachel repeatedly went to her GP with back pain; for 7 months she was told it was muscular and to take paracetamol. After 3 trips to A&E with pain a locum GP advised scans. The scans showed a tumour in the pancreas and bile ducts, a biopsy confirmed it was cancerous and inoperable, only palliative treatment could be offered in the UK. It felt like our world was collapsing – I can’t begin to describe the horror and Rachel’s first thoughts were of her two babies.

Rachel could have taken the word of the oncologist as being absolute; she could have listened to specialist nurses who advised accepting that there was nothing more to do. She didn’t, and with the help of family (in particular her middle sister Jayne) researched every possible treatment and alternative. The results of the research found effective treatments available in other countries.

Rachel Underwent a new type of treatment in Germany which has been funded by our parents. Even at an early stage blood results showed the tumour wass shrinking and moving away from neighbouring vital organs and to everyone's amazement after a year the tumour had no active cancer in it and was basically just scar tissue.

One year later the tumour which should have killed me was gone. We were all over the moon and set up 'Love Hope Trust', a charitable trust to help raise money for other people needing treatments not funded by the NHS. We have been able to help support 6 other people to be able to pay for treatments since setting up and supported others by raising awareness of their fundraising.

Another year on and my cancer is back, it has spread to my lymph nodes, I have ascites in my abdomen and I am preparing to fight again. My children are one year older, Freya has just started in reception at primary School and Will has moved up a class on Nursery, they are such amazing kids and it breaks my heart that they have to go through this again.

Again the NHS can offer no treatment, except palliative care. There is, however hope, a Clinic in Germany are extremely positive they will be able to help me, by offering a new type of treatment called Immunotherapy. Unfortunately, this time there is not enough money left after paying for previous treatments, and I need your help to get lifesaving immunotherapy in Hallwang clinic in Germany. Please give whatever you can, and if you can't, thank you for taking the time to read this story until the end. Thank you all so much.