Kellie's fight against brain cancer
Donation protected
Almost two years ago to the day, my family and I reached out to our community to support my sister-in-law Kellie to fight the battle of her life. Thanks to everyone’s support, Charlie Teo operated on Kellie and successfully removed majority of the Oligodendroglioma brain tumour.
In the last two years she has become an inspiration to so many of us, she has become fit & healthy, a super Mum to her 3 young children, raised awareness and money for Walk for Brain Cancer and embraced all the things in life we so often take for granted. All while fighting the fight that you and I, no matter how hard we try, could never imagine.
Last week on her 35th birthday her amazing husband surprised her with a tour of her much loved ‘Summer Bay’ set. One day later, a meeting with Charlie Teo would turn hers and our entire world upside down again. Her MRI has revealed that the remaining tumour is growing aggressively and is now triple in size in one area. It is behaving like a Grade 3 Oligodendroglioma.
Charlie’s initial reaction was to recommend that Kellie have awake surgery as the location is impacting a very important part of her brain. Sadly, Charlie does not perform awake brain surgeries. However, he has worked with a Dr Sughrue who is leading the way in America with this advanced method of removing tumours. After researching Dr Sughure we found out that his specific interest is removing gliomas from critical brain regions such as speech and motor parts of the brain. Kellie’s tumour is located in her front left lobe, right where his specialty is.
What does this all mean? Without surgery, Kellie’s life expectancy is shortened. So she has again made the brave decision to go ahead with the awake brain surgery to remove the tumour. The best chance she has at removing most of the tumour is under Dr Sughure in America. We have been in contact with him directly and he is available to perform the surgery on the 14th of May. The cost of the surgery alone is $130,000 (US).
Since hearing this heartbreaking news the same community has started to reach out wanting to support Kellie and her family. We are getting her to the US and are so grateful for any support that you can offer. Any donations will be going directly to Kellie and her family to pay back the loan for the medical expenses.
Kellie felt so overwhelmed with people wanting to reach out and support her. I had to remind her that she has profoundly changed so many of our lives for the better. That just like me, not only do people want to help, they need to.
We will use this platform to keep you all up to date.
Thank you from all of us xo
In the last two years she has become an inspiration to so many of us, she has become fit & healthy, a super Mum to her 3 young children, raised awareness and money for Walk for Brain Cancer and embraced all the things in life we so often take for granted. All while fighting the fight that you and I, no matter how hard we try, could never imagine.
Last week on her 35th birthday her amazing husband surprised her with a tour of her much loved ‘Summer Bay’ set. One day later, a meeting with Charlie Teo would turn hers and our entire world upside down again. Her MRI has revealed that the remaining tumour is growing aggressively and is now triple in size in one area. It is behaving like a Grade 3 Oligodendroglioma.
Charlie’s initial reaction was to recommend that Kellie have awake surgery as the location is impacting a very important part of her brain. Sadly, Charlie does not perform awake brain surgeries. However, he has worked with a Dr Sughrue who is leading the way in America with this advanced method of removing tumours. After researching Dr Sughure we found out that his specific interest is removing gliomas from critical brain regions such as speech and motor parts of the brain. Kellie’s tumour is located in her front left lobe, right where his specialty is.
What does this all mean? Without surgery, Kellie’s life expectancy is shortened. So she has again made the brave decision to go ahead with the awake brain surgery to remove the tumour. The best chance she has at removing most of the tumour is under Dr Sughure in America. We have been in contact with him directly and he is available to perform the surgery on the 14th of May. The cost of the surgery alone is $130,000 (US).
Since hearing this heartbreaking news the same community has started to reach out wanting to support Kellie and her family. We are getting her to the US and are so grateful for any support that you can offer. Any donations will be going directly to Kellie and her family to pay back the loan for the medical expenses.
Kellie felt so overwhelmed with people wanting to reach out and support her. I had to remind her that she has profoundly changed so many of our lives for the better. That just like me, not only do people want to help, they need to.
We will use this platform to keep you all up to date.
Thank you from all of us xo
Organizer
Katrina Fola
Organizer
Pallarenda QLD
