Lauren's cancer medical fund

My name is Lauren Felicity Geeves. I'm writing this to kindly request your help. 

 

Just before my 28th birthday this year I was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer. Please read my story of how this unfolded and why I request your help. 

 

A few months before my diagnosis I began to feel severe lower abdominal pain. I went to my doctor and began being tested.  After nothing was found in my reproductive system through an Ultrasound, my doctor just brushed me off telling me I had Irritable Bowel Syndrome and told me to try the low FODMAP's diet to challenge gluton, lactose and fructose. I tried everything to get better and nothing changed. I persisted with my doctor and after a calprotectin stool culture, it showed how inflammed my bowel was. My doctor said I probably had Crohn's or Ulcerative Colitis (both Inflammatory Bowel Diseases). She was wrong and I think inside I knew. 

 

Last year, now I realise my body was trying to tell me that something was wrong. I had around 14 cold sores throughout the year. I went to my doctor about it and she brushed me off, saying they are not serious. I began to photo document them everytime I got one, to show her how often it was happening. She still didn't care. She never bothered to look into it, I mean, something has got to be wrong in the immune system if you're getting that many cold sores a year. I found out this year after my diagnosis that severe outbreaks in viral infections are directly linked to a serious immune response to something, ie: cancer. No investigations were ever done.

 

I had also presented with enlarged reactive lymph nodes on the left side of my neck, I found these early January, 2015. I kept telling my doctor about them and other doctors, they all said they were nothing to worry about.

 

When things got really bad, I began vomitting. I went to emergency at the hospital and the doctor who saw me basically told me it was all in my head. I even had a blood test there, was sent home with a request to see a gastroentrologist on a wait list for 12 months and a bunch of painkillers which only made things worse. Little did I know, I would have been dead in six months. 

 

After this, my frustration built, I couldnt sleep, work or exercise, I felt as though I was deteriorating quickly, in so much pain and nobody was listening to me. I went back to my doctor and pushed to get a biopsy on the enlarged lymph nodes in my neck. The results showed cancerous cells, suggesting it was located in my bowel. This shocked everyone.  It also meant that the cancer was already spread and at an advanced stage. It had already spread to my lymph nodes for one and I was yet to find out where else. 

 

After seeing an Oncologist in Febuary and being admitted to hospital, I had CT scans and PET scans, doctors found it had moved into my lungs. Lot's of it. My prognosis without treatment was six months. With treatment I've been given 2-3 years of life. With your help, I'm hoping to change this. 

 

I am exploring and using other integratve treatments to compliment my Chemotherapy, improve the side effects, help it to work better and hopefully have a better quality life and prolong it. Unfortunately these treatments, suppliments and medicines are unaffordable on my own and to my family. This is why I request your help. 

 

Some of these treatments are widely researched and used in Germany for cancer treatment. One of them is called Hyperthermia, which I am doing. If the Chemotherapy doesn't work I may also go to Germany (if i have the funds) to try more advanced treatments. 

 

Please consider my request for funding. Thankyou so much for any contribution you make, you have given me a reason and strength to fight. With your help, I can get through this, so thank you, you are amazing. 

 

One more thing, I want to reach out, shout out and encourage all of you, especially those of you my age or younger (or older) to get checked. As you read in my situation, nobody believed I was sick until it was so advanced. This is because of my age and appearance. So trust your gut feeling... PLEASE! If you feel like something is not right with your body, get checked, tell your doctor and tell my story. Early detection is VITAL! 

 

We all believe this type of thing will never happen to us, but it can, no matter how young, how old or how healthy you look or feel. It happened to me, and never in my wildest dreams or nightmares (and i have some crazy ones, believe me) would I have thought this would happen to me. Sometimes I still don't believe it. Most days I am strong and with the support around me, I can be. But I am angry, I'm angry at the doctors, this could have been detected early. 

 

Your body is a temple, so treat it like one, your life is precious, so treat it like that, appreciate the beautiful people around you and the small things. There is so much beauty in the little things, don't take it for granted. 

Lauren xxx