Gaye Babbage-Cancer Treatment Fund
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Thank you visiting my page.
My name is Gaye. I don’t want to die yet.
I am 63 years old. I have been a model, yoga teacher, chef and PA. I have a wonderful husband, two gorgeous daughters and two little grandsons of my own, plus a large extended family of step children and grandchildren.
For the last six years I have also had stage 4 terminal lung cancer.
Here is my story.
I got breathless on a skiing holiday in 2010. I put this down to the altitude – but it didn't go away. When I returned home, I started to lose my voice. I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection. Eventually I was sent for a chest X-ray, which showed a large mass on my right lung. The oncologist told us this was stage 4 cancer, inoperable and incurable, and offered palliative chemotherapy. They thought I'd last 6 months tops. It was a totally shocking diagnosis. I hardly felt ill, but apparently I was dying.
So began my cancer journey at the Royal Marsden.
Initially I had the prescribed chemo for 4 months, and to the oncologists’ surprise the growths began to shrink. I changed my lifestyle; started seeing healers, used alternative therapies to create a holistic approach to my disease, and the results seemed promising.
However a year later the tumours had mutated and began to grow again and I had to look for the next stage of treatment. This time I was given a drug, a daily pill called Tarceva which was successful for the first 18 months – but then the tumours again mutated and started to develop again.
I was put on a phase 2 trial treatment of a new drug called Tagrisso, which has meant travelling from London to the clinic in Manchester every six weeks for the last 2½ years. Unfortunately this drug has also now stopped working as the clever tumour cells have mutated again.
All this treatment has been on the NHS. I cannot praise or thank them enough. But there is little more they can do for me now. However, there is a drug available here privately that costs £5000 a month, and there are other options offered by the Hallwang Clinic, but these too are expensive.
Although I was unlucky to get this horrible disease, I’ve been lucky in that I have a couple of rare mutations in my cancer cells which can be targeted by some cutting edge treatments. I have a very good chance of living for many more years if I am able to pay for them. My husband Eddie and I can make a start, but I’m going to need your help to get there.
Six years down the line from my initial diagnosis and I am still here. During that time I have married my long-term partner, who has held me together and kept me going when I just wanted to give up. My daughter has had two little boys who fill my life with joy. I do however have one great sadness. My son-in-law passed away before Christmas, leaving my daughter a widow at 37 and the two little boys with no father. It is for this reason that I am now asking for help. They cannot lose me as well.
Your help would mean more than I can say. Please donate whatever you can. I will be sending out weekly updates so you'll know exactly where the money's going. I had the most generous donation last week, which gave me the courage to start this fund. I’m finding it very difficult to ask for help like this, but I just don’t know what else I can do. Please help me.
Many thanks for taking the time read this.
Lots of love
Gaye
Organizer
Gaye Babbage
Organizer