My mums lifesaving cancer treatment
Donazione protetta
Hi, my name is Charmian and I am from Adelaide, Australia. My mum, Lisa, has an incurable form of uterine cancer. Fortunately, an American trial is currently happening in America which hopefully changes the DNA of the cancer cells so they can be killed off, but this comes with a heavy cost. It costs around 110,000 Australian dollars to have this lifesaving treatment. So far $90,000 has been raised through fundraisers and donations but another $20,000 is still needed.
My mum was diagnosed with stage 2 uterine papillary cell cancer at the start of 2014, which has now progressed to stage 4 cancer. My mum has had 7 rounds of chemotherapy and ip chemo, in which my mum had to be in critical care due to the risk of heart and kidney failure. When my mum is in critical care, the doctors have to observe my mum carefully because my mum has tumour lysis which is caused when the cancer cells die and they let out potassium which can lead to heart failure. My mum has also had 10 rounds of radiation including irradiation (whole body), targeted and internal radiation. My mum has had surgery on her hip, thigh, uterus, spine and her adrenal gland to remove tumours. Just recently, she had a resection of her liver to remove the right lobe due to a tumour growing on it. When my mum was having radiation, this caused acute radiation sickness because the liver was not functioning properly due to the tumour. My mum has had over 50 blood transfusions over the past 2 and a half years because of her neutropenia.
One month ago my mum had a bone marrow engraftment. This was a treatment available in the UK which was another option instead of a normal bone marrow transplant because it is faster and does not require a donor, just an umbilical cord, but it is not available in Australia. Through fundraising efforts of a quiz night, $6,000 was raised for this treatment. My mum needed either a bone marrow transplant or engraftment because my mum had developed neutropenia due to the chemotherapy and radiation. The neutropenia caused my mum to develop pneumonia twice and she had to be hospitalised both times. My mum also has low BGL and can cause my mum to start going into a coma when left unnoticed. On one occasion, there was many ambulances outside of my house because my mum was in the early stages of going into a coma. This was really scary for myself and my two younger siblings aged 9 and 11 at the time because we all lost hope and thought our mum was going to die that day.
My life has changed hugely of these last two and a half years because we always different carers walking in and of the house which can be uncomfortable for myself and my siblings. When my mum is tired and in a lot of pain, I have to prepare a meal for my family because dad would be working a lot of the time. Sometimes I have to assist my mum when she is getting dressed because of her pain levels. I also test her blood glucose levels (BGL) for her because she is tired and forgets most of the time.
Please donate money, even just five dollars, so that my mum can watch me and my siblings grow up because my mum lost her mum when she was a child and I do not want that to happen to me. Every dollar is a step closer to being healthy and giving us hope.
My mum was diagnosed with stage 2 uterine papillary cell cancer at the start of 2014, which has now progressed to stage 4 cancer. My mum has had 7 rounds of chemotherapy and ip chemo, in which my mum had to be in critical care due to the risk of heart and kidney failure. When my mum is in critical care, the doctors have to observe my mum carefully because my mum has tumour lysis which is caused when the cancer cells die and they let out potassium which can lead to heart failure. My mum has also had 10 rounds of radiation including irradiation (whole body), targeted and internal radiation. My mum has had surgery on her hip, thigh, uterus, spine and her adrenal gland to remove tumours. Just recently, she had a resection of her liver to remove the right lobe due to a tumour growing on it. When my mum was having radiation, this caused acute radiation sickness because the liver was not functioning properly due to the tumour. My mum has had over 50 blood transfusions over the past 2 and a half years because of her neutropenia.
One month ago my mum had a bone marrow engraftment. This was a treatment available in the UK which was another option instead of a normal bone marrow transplant because it is faster and does not require a donor, just an umbilical cord, but it is not available in Australia. Through fundraising efforts of a quiz night, $6,000 was raised for this treatment. My mum needed either a bone marrow transplant or engraftment because my mum had developed neutropenia due to the chemotherapy and radiation. The neutropenia caused my mum to develop pneumonia twice and she had to be hospitalised both times. My mum also has low BGL and can cause my mum to start going into a coma when left unnoticed. On one occasion, there was many ambulances outside of my house because my mum was in the early stages of going into a coma. This was really scary for myself and my two younger siblings aged 9 and 11 at the time because we all lost hope and thought our mum was going to die that day.
My life has changed hugely of these last two and a half years because we always different carers walking in and of the house which can be uncomfortable for myself and my siblings. When my mum is tired and in a lot of pain, I have to prepare a meal for my family because dad would be working a lot of the time. Sometimes I have to assist my mum when she is getting dressed because of her pain levels. I also test her blood glucose levels (BGL) for her because she is tired and forgets most of the time.
Please donate money, even just five dollars, so that my mum can watch me and my siblings grow up because my mum lost her mum when she was a child and I do not want that to happen to me. Every dollar is a step closer to being healthy and giving us hope.
Organizzatore
Charmian Bowes
Organizzatore
Christies Beach, SA