Laura Elizabeth Mahon Fight With Brain Cancer

Daniel Mahon is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi, I’ve created this page for my wife Laura Elizabeth Mahon to help raise money so she can enjoy making memories, as well as funding alternative treatments that have been keeping her going. We would also like to use some money raised towards charities close to our hearts.

She has been diagnosed with a grade 4 brain tumour and was given a prognosis of 12-18 months to live in October 2021. Please read her story and help our family and help raise awareness of this awful disease.

Health update January 2024

Unfortunately after Laura’s routine MRI in January it showed tumour progression and that Laura’s chemotherapy is no longer working. Laura will now have another 2 weeks of radiotherapy to try and stabilise the tumours.

February 2024

Laura completed 2 weeks of radiotherapy but became quite poorly with radiotherapy symptoms and spent a week on ward at our hospital. She will now have a 6 week break from treatment and have an MRI scan at the start of April where we will see if the radiotherapy has worked.

We plan on spending this time building Laura back up, spending time as a family and having a break away.

Thank you to everyone who has donated these help pay for alternative treatments to help Laura which aren't available on the NHS and making memories as family.

This is Laura’s story -

In September 2021; when I was 20 weeks pregnant, I woke up one morning and was unable to walk. I was experiencing nausea and was sensitive to bright lights. Doctors thought it was my baby laying on a nerve, I was sent for an MRI of my back. This came back clear and I was sent for another MRI scan, this time of my Brain. I was now 24 weeks pregnant, I was in the machine for 5 minutes when they pulled me out because they could see something. They sent me back in the MRI and I lay there for what seemed like an eternity. I could see into the radiology room as doctors appeared all looking at my scan. I was pulled into a room with my mum and was told the devastating news that I had a Brain Tumour. They told me it had more than likely been there for years and had only now started growing. My treatment options where limited as I was pregnant. They couldn’t tell me what grade my tumour was as I couldn’t have contrast dye with my MRI scan because of the baby but they knew it was a Glioma and I was told I’d have 1 year to live. Me and my husband Danny decided to ‘watch and wait’ however I became really poorly at 27 weeks pregnant, I was now losing feeling in my right arm as well (The Cancer was spreading). At 30 weeks pregnant I had a C section under general anaesthetic. Sienna Grace Laura Mahon was born on November 30 2021 weighing just 3.4lbs. She was Tiny.

Sienna was taken to the neonatal ward where she was placed in an incubator. She developed pneumothorax (A collapsed lung) and needed a higher care unit so she was transferred to Oldham Hospital on just day 2 of her life. Me and Danny left Warrington and followed her there. Driving back and forth between there and The Walton Centre in Liverpool for appointments. All the staff we’ve encountered at each hospital have been amazing and so supportive. I cannot thank them enough for looking after our baby and us.

I was due for brain surgery at the Walton centre in Liverpool on 10th December 2021, I’d had another MRI scan that day with contrast dye and this had shown that the tumour had grown a large amount and it was inoperable due to location and growth. Instead they could only do a biopsy and remove around 10/15% of it. I was told two days before Christmas it was a grade 4 brain tumour and was highly aggressive. Even with treatment we were looking at around one year to live.

In January 2022 I started dual Radiotherapy/Chemotherapy everyday for 6 weeks at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool. After 10 days I was taken off chemotherapy as my liver was failing. I finished the rest of radiotherapy in February 2022 and my scan after this had shown the radiotherapy had worked. I then continued on 6 months of chemotherapy. My tumour responded really well to the chemotherapy drug Temozolomide.

In January 2023 after a routine scan I was told my tumour had spread to the other half of my brain. I was put on the chemotherapy drug Lomustine. After 2 cycles I had a seizure and an emergency scan revealed that this chemotherapy drug wasn’t working and I was moved onto the chemotherapy drug procarbazine. Apparently the NHS only funds 4 types of chemotherapy, I’m down to my 3rd line of chemo and running out of options.

Shortly after starting the third chemo I fell very poorly and ended up in hospital for 10 days with original tumour symptoms and sickness. New scans showed swelling on my brain, I had also contracted covid which was likely why I’d become so poorly.

At this point I’ve completed 12 months of chemotherapy, this is for 10 days every month and I will be on this for the foreseeable future. I will continue to be scanned every 3 months.

We are currently on our last line of treatment that's available on the NHS. Since then we've sought alternative treatments and our latest Scan in August 2023 has shown that the brain tumour is currently stable and has even shrunk a little! We are over the moon as we were running out of options.

I have created this page to help pay for alternative treatments, give Laura a chance to make happy memories with our daughter and raise some money for charities in the process that have helped us.

Please donate or share our story - we will keep you updated as we go along

Follow Laura’s socials for more updates:

https://linktr.ee/lauraelizabethmahon?fbclid=IwAR1LSXQZ9UvyjP6URaueaVKH_PFmhFl-VWUmi3pGrNEXdLW4uenQAh_z7RQ

Laura in the news:

https://www.braintumourresearch.org/stories/in-hope/in-hope-stories/laura-mahon?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1rqkBhCTARIsAAHz7K07JGX0JIDa8bZ-8d706YOtEV8QQVcOziQeCis27FSA4OBciEqD4KEaAtj3EALw_wcB

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-be-29-finds-out-27167391.amp

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/brain-tumour-symptoms-cancer-eastenders-b2216810.html?amp

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10893977/amp/St-Helens-woman-woke-unable-toes-told-incurable-brain-tumour.html

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mum-told-deadly-disease-growing-25640953.amp

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/doctors-warning-after-pregnant-wife-27696400

Video from BBC news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU9nQgiOm2A

Updates:

Laura spent her baby's first Christmas in the Neonatal unit

Laura and Danny got married on the 6th January 2022 - Laura started her radio and chemotherapy treatment the week after. Laura had her first seizure the day before her wedding.

8th January 2022 - Sienna had her Christening in the hospital chapel

Laura finally got to take her baby Sienna home on 17th January 2022 after 51 days of being in the neonatal unit

Laura and Danny had the honour of opening the new Imaging Centre at Edge Hill University - a multimillion-pound venture that focuses on improving access and diagnosis through clinical imaging for patients in the North-West