Help Louisa make memories

"Today was a Difficult Day," said Pooh. There was a pause.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Piglet.

"No," said Pooh after a bit. "No, I don't think I do."

"That's okay," said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend.

"What are you doing?" asked Pooh.

"Nothing, really," said Piglet. "Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don't feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either.

"But goodness," continued Piglet, "Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you've got someone there for you. And I'll always be here for you, Pooh."

Normally Louisa is the Piglet to everyone else’s Pooh, but over the past 22 months Louisa has had several, “Difficult Days,” more than anyone should suffer in a lifetime ….and I don’t know about you, but as her friend I have struggled to know what to do to help her, James, Harry & Alex through this. Reverse time? Change her fate? Magic her cancer away for ever?....…. Unfortunately none of these things exist within the “friendship tool kit”.

On 18th February 2020 Louisa was admitted into Barnet Hospital and after a number of tests and scans, her world was shattered with the diagnosis that she had a very rare type of soft tissue cancer called Sarcoma, which had presented itself in her right lung. The prognosis discussed then with this type of cancer was 5 years….

From there, “Difficult Days,” began to stack up. The heartbreak of telling her sons, her family, her friends. Cancelling their holiday of a lifetime as a family to Thailand, that they had been so excited for traded instead for various rounds of chemo.

Then all of the days of treatment that quickly followed, leading to a very invasive surgery to remove first partially, then completely her right lung. All in 7 months…

The physical pain to her body, the loss of her identity, as not only did Louisa’s hair fall out from chemo, but she had to adapt to a new, slower restricted way of living (and as we all know this is not in Lou’s DNA!)….the endless emotional torment she endured, along with the financial stress of not being able to work and yet still trying to keep on top of life.

Dealing with all this, whilst also suffering isolation that came with the extreme Covid restrictions in place meant that she wasn’t able to surround herself with all the people she loved as she underwent treatment, nor was she able to spend quality time with James, Harry and Alex in between treatments.

21st December 2020, Louisa was told she was in remission…. She had achieved what she had feared was impossible! She had beaten cancer into submission!

2021 gave Louisa the opportunity to start believing in the future again, in her future. Back to being mum, wife, best friend, daughter, sister, interpreter, back to being there for everyone else.

Louisa had just shy of a year of being able to feel this way before perhaps her most “Difficult Day” yet…December 13th 2021. After a random shadow was seen on her lung in a routine scan, Louisa was told that the cancer was back, and that it had spread now to her pelvis and bones in her spine…..

2022 is going to bring more chemotherapy treatments to now try to keep the cancer at bay for as long as possible, and more incredibly “Difficult Days” as this disease once again invades her and her families lives. The prognosis is sadly not good.

With time no longer being this wonderful, infinite, luxury for them, as her friends, we can do something meaningful. We can help to make the time that Louisa has left with her boys and James the most special and precious it can be.

With your support, we can raise the funds needed so that Louisa can take her family on that trip of a lifetime as soon as possible in 2022, to make precious memories that they will always be able to carry in their hearts, to use as touchstones to remind them of amazing times they shared together, on the days when it feels impossible, not just“Difficult.”

I hope that you will support Louisa and her family to make this happen.