Team Emily

Dear Friends,

The past 11 months have been a physical and emotional roller coaster for Emily. In November 2018, following a visit to A&E, a tumour was discovered in Emily’s pelvis. After two months of scans, tests and hospital stays, it was finally diagnosed as Stage 3, Serous Low Grade Ovarian Cancer. The majority of January 2019 was spent in and out of the Royal Marsden after extensive surgery that successfully removed the tumour.



After the second operation that lasted 9 hours, Mr Butler (her surgeon) had removed both ovaries, her womb, and opened her abdomen to remove cancerous cells that had developed on the surface of her rib cage, bladder and pouch near her liver. It was also necessary to remove the majority of her bowel which resulted in a permanent stoma bag, even though ahead of the surgery there was a 2% chance this would happen.

 
In reflection Mr Butler performed one of the most extensive surgeries one could survive. Emily had to wait before she was physically strong enough to enter the second stage of her treatment. Emily was amazing, extremely focused on gaining her strength so that she could start her chemo and “get it over with”. What initially was set as a six week recovery time was done in four and then it was time for Emily to focus on her next big goal, getting through her 6 grueling chemotherapy sessions. 


Against all odds, Emily’s most recent scan results show that she is currently cancer free which is the best news in the world!  But just to be sure her team of doctors have determined that it would be best to continue a three weekly intravenous treatment with an experimental drug for the next year.

 
We have described the different stages of her treatment to highlight how much of an emphasis there was on just getting through to the next stage, just getting better enough to go through chemo, just getting through each session, each test, each scan, each doctors visit and on to the next one. Now at this stage, with physical healing and cancer killing treatment focus on the back burner, it’s time to focus on the emotional and mental toll it has taken.

Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in West London did a sterling job giving Emily emotional support during treatment. She is now ready for longer term support to help her handle life after cancer.   As many of you know who have been touched by cancer, either personally or through a family member or friend, the impact of cancer does not end with your last Chemo session.


So, we are writing to you to get the ball rolling for help with Emily’s emotional recovery and to alleviate some of the financial impact cancer has already had and will continue to have on her life.  We are setting up a fund that Emily can use to help her get through this next phase.


No donation is too little or small as every bit can contribute to Emily’s road to recovery, such as her medical insurance and counselling sessions. Any  money raised in excess of Emily’s needs will be donated to the Royal Marsden who’s nurses, doctors and 24 hours staff tirelessly looked after Em with ultimate care and positivity. We would like to thank everyone on Emily’s behalf for the overwhelming support she has received. Through such a hard time she has been surrounded by an incredible amount of love and support.   We can’t explain enough how much this has meant to her. 

Please find here a link to a page Em wrote for Ovarian.org that tells her story in more detail. https://ovarian.org.uk/news-and-blog/your-stories/emily-plane/ 



Thank you for taking the time to read this.


Lots of love,

Team Emily. X