My dad met my step mum Julie 19 years ago. They have a very happy marriage, each of their lives revolve around one another…

Julies Father Chris was diagnosed with cancer in 2014; this news was upsetting for the family. Sadly he passed away October 2016. This was a great loss for Julie who had lost her father but also my dad who had lost a close friend.

Julie was diagnosed with cancer in September 2019 after a lump she found was removed. Royal Marsden Hospital said that for her type of cancer, both chemotherapy and radiotherapy were rarely successful. She spent all day every day, for months, researching her diagnosis to find ways to beat it. A recurrence happened in April 2020. As this was at the early stages of lockdown, not only did she have to receive this news, but she had to receive it alone without my dad to comfort her, due to COVID restrictions for hospital appointments. Julie was offered a life changing surgery but it would have left her with a stoma. Her tumours were about 1cm each; which Is a large cost for something so small. And so, the option was declined and she continued to research herself.

Julie changed her diet to mostly organic food, she exercised regularly, and gave up alcohol too. She often took supplements and tablets to help starve the cancer. In November 2020 she was told that she had stable tumours, so she asked if she could try radiotherapy. This was successful, and she was informed that there was no evidence of disease in June 2021; we were all over the moon. My dad, couldn’t have been happier.

As Julie was battling her illness, Julies mother sadly was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. She underwent chemotherapy through much of 2021. Her mother had various underlying health issues that did not allow her to even consider a potentially lifesaving operation. She had a recurrence in 2022. Heartbreakingly, her mother deteriorated suddenly and lost the battle late November 2022. Which, once again was really hard for Julie as she not only was trying to fight to keep herself healthy but she had to see her mum go through a similar thing too, from the same disease that her dad had also previously lost his battle.

Early 2023 Julie started feeling quite unwell and of course, with her history thought it would be best to go to the doctor. She had a scan, then sent home and told that she will be contacted with results.

A day or two later Julie received the worst news she could possibly imagine, the scan isn’t clear. After more scans over the next few weeks, Julie finds out she has 2 tumours in each of her lungs – resulting in 4 tumours existing as the same very rare, aggressive cancer from the first time.

We are all heart broken, but Julie, the incredible woman that she is, decided to say no to the odds. Once again, she spends day and night researching the best possible diets and different ways to prevent/shrink the cancer.

During all those multiple hours of research, Julie came across a facility in Spain. She has found and spoken to people that have travelled from all over the world to get into this treatment facility with also bad, aggressive illness’s, and have come out and years later are able to talk about it and help others.

Of course though, you have to pay for the best of the best. Since covid, my parents once recently very successful online business fell through. All the money they had went on making sure they could feed themselves and put a roof over their head. While everything in the world was all going so wrong, Julie is still fighting and getting rid of cancer; no matter what happened in their life as long as they’re together they are fine.

From my dad’s point of view, his entire world is going through something absolutely horrific. My Dad lost his first wife, my mum, and I’m sure didn’t think he’d find love again. Julie is the love of his life, he’s doing everything in his power to make some money to take her to this facility. My 65 year old dad works 7 days a week, ridiculous hours a day, because he needs to try and help. It’s not fair for either of them to have to go through any of this the first time let alone a second, and now a third.

Which is why I’m doing this for them, I’m reaching out for help. The hours my dad works are not healthy and he needs to be able to be wife as much as possible right now. They are able to borrow £20,000 but the overall costs is around £35,000. If we can raise even a little bit of the payment for the facility I’d at least feel like I’d done some good helping it happen. We’re just asking for help, even in the smallest way. Anything you can spare would be so appreciated.