Help Jess fight metastatic TN breast cancer

My name is Jess and I am 33.

In late 2020, I was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer. I underwent chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and further chemotherapy with the aim to cure me.

Unfortunately, in late 2021, while still having chemotherapy, I had a local recurrence which resulted in me having a mastectomy. I had a CT scan to check for distance metastases (spread elsewhere in the body) but nothing was found.

I was now classed as high risk of further recurrence and therefore had monitoring CT scans every 3 months. A tiny nodule popped up on my right lung in March and the same in June - as it hadn't grown further, we were hopeful it wasn't sinister.

In late July/early August 2022, after finally getting my life together - returning to work, losing chemo weight, enjoying life as a family feeling healthy - I had a rash on my torso and a painful back. I have an amazing team at my hospital and my surgeon booked me in. She was concerned about the rash and me about my spine. She took biopsies and pushed for quick scans. We went on holiday, as encouraged by the surgeon, as a family and I started to feel better.

Devastatingly for us as a family, 3 days after arriving back home, we were given the news that the cancer was now secondary, metastatic, incurable. It wasn't my spine or skin, it was cancer in my right lung and in a chest lymph node cluster.

I had a first line of chemotherapy for my stage 4 diagnosis - it failed and I had significant progression (the cancer all grew). I then had a second line of targeted chemotherapy treatment - Trodelvy - which showed some response after 3 cycles. But again, the joy was short lived as my symptoms (cough, pain, fatigue and breathlessness) kicked back up and a CT scan showed more growth.

Triple negative breast cancer is known to be aggressive and hard to treat. My NHS options now can only hope to keep the disease stable (with all the symptoms I currently have) and I haven't had a good track record with traditional chemo.

This is where this page comes in: the best option for me right now is Enhertu, a targeted therapy which is available for some women on the NHS but not for women in my position currently. There have been incredibly promising trials and data that suggest it could work amazingly for women like me. If you'd like to know more about the science and studies behind Enhertu, please make contact. It is in line to be discussed by NICE in November 2023. Without a decent treatment now, I won't be around to use it. Until November, my only option to access this treatment is privately. This is insanely expensive and it feels horrible to ask for help with this. Each cycle (a cycle is 3 weeks) costs approximately £11,000 plus costs for CT scans (£650) and heart scans (£350) and travelling to Bristol to receive treatment.

I'm aiming to raise the funds to pay for my first couple of cycles to see if this drug could work for me and then will further fundraise to get me the Enhertu until it becomes available on the NHS.

I have an incredible family. I need to be here for them and I want to be here for a long time to come. I'm desperate to live.

If you can donate anything, please do.

Thank you

Jess