Her name is Amanda. But everyone who loves her calls her Mandy and this week, after nearly two months of medical failures that should never have happened, she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. This is her story. And this is why I'm asking for your help.

She's the kind of woman who would give you her last £10 if you needed it more than she did. The kind who goes without so everyone around her can have enough. The kind who, when you try to give her a gift, tells you off for spending money on her instead of yourself.

She had a mind that could have taken her anywhere. Oxford was within her reach. Instead, she met my dad young, fell in love, and built her entire life around her family. She had my brother at 21 and me at 23. She spent every one of her birthdays when I was small sitting at my hospital bedside through severe asthma attacks... and never once complained. Not once.

My dad is deaf. Throughout everything that has followed, the weight of understanding, advocating, and fighting has fallen largely on her shoulders and mine. She has carried it with a quiet dignity I'll never fully be able to put into words.

She's never been wealthy. She's never had it easy. But she finds joy in the smallest things — a kind word from a stranger, the ordinary magic of an ordinary day. Her dream is simple and always has been: She just wants to go and enjoy a day at the seaside.

She is the best person I have ever known. And she is my best friend.

What happened to her and what should have happened differently.

In February 2026, Mandy was admitted to Doncaster Royal Infirmary with what appeared to be gallstones. What followed were two months of failures that I believe directly contributed to where we are today.

She was admitted and discharged four times in five weeks — once sent home while still on supplemental oxygen, with rising infection markers and no antibiotics. She told doctors repeatedly that she was struggling to breathe. Nobody investigated it. 3.5 litres of fluid was slowly crushing her lung. A pulmonary embolism went undetected. A perforated, gangrenous gallbladder continued to poison her from the inside. Had someone ordered a chest X-ray when she first said she couldn't breathe, what was growing inside her may have been caught earlier. When it was more treatable. When her body was stronger.

Formal complaints have been lodged against both Doncaster Royal Infirmary and Sheffield Northern General Hospital. A Serious Incident review has been requested. This is documented, evidenced, and being pursued. We are fighting the system legally, but right now, time is a luxury she doesn't have. We need to move her care NOW while the investigations happen in the background.

I want to be clear though, the nursing staff throughout were extraordinary. And when the right surgical team finally took ownership, their colleagues saved her life in incredibly difficult circumstances. I will never be able to thank them enough. The failures were systemic and not the people at the bedside who gave her everything they had. This is unfortunately, the reality of the NHS I love so dearly.

The diagnosis.

On 29th April 2026, we sat in a room and were told that all three biopsies taken during her emergency surgery had come back as metastatic cancer. Secondary cancer. They believe the primary is ovarian or fallopian tube in origin. Her CA-125 (a cancer marker) was 30,000. Normal is under 35. All of this had been missed on previous imaging -- they apologised.

She is 57 years old.

We are not giving up. She is not giving up.

Mandy survived a perforated gangrenous gallbladder. She survived a pulmonary embolism. She survived 3.5 litres of fluid being drained from her chest. She survived emergency surgery that her anaesthetist described as high risk. She came out of that theatre breathing on her own, without a ventilator. Within days she was off oxygen completely and walking unaided. She is, as she has always been, stronger than anyone gives her credit for.

Why the Royal Marsden — and why we need your help.

Ovarian and fallopian tube cancers, even at advanced stages, can respond meaningfully to treatment. New targeted therapies such as PARP inhibitors, immunotherapy, clinical trials have genuinely changed what's possible in the last decade. There are women living years beyond this diagnosis with the right care. We intend to do our best to access every single one of those options.

The Royal Marsden Hospital in London is one of the top three cancer centres in the world. It is where I want my mum to be treated. They have the best gynaecological oncology specialists in the country. They run clinical trials that aren't available anywhere else. They see cases like my mum's every single week and they know what to do.

My goal is to get her an initial private consultation at the Royal Marsden with one of their leading specialists and from there, to fund whatever treatment, travel, and support is needed to give her the absolute best possible chance.

I'm Jordan, Mandy's son. I'm a software engineer and a trained Community First Responder volunteer with Yorkshire Ambulance Service, which I like to think means that when the system was failing her, I had just enough medical knowledge to know it, and just enough stubbornness to fight back. As a software engineer, I am pouring every resource I have into this, but the costs of private specialist care and long-distance medical logistics are simply beyond what one family can carry alone.

She gave up Oxford for us. She spent her birthdays in hospital with me. She went without so we could have enough.

It is my turn now.

What we're raising for

I am raising £10,000 to start. Every single pound goes directly toward getting my mum the world class cancer care she deserves — the care that should have been more accessible from the beginning, had the system not failed her so badly.

If you can give anything, anything at all, please know that it goes toward one of the most remarkable, generous, brilliant women I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

• Initial Private Consultations & Genomic Profiling at The Royal Marsden.

• Specialist imaging at the Royal Marsden (MRIs, CTs PET scans etc.)

• Any funding towards treatment they can provide.

• Travel and specialized transport from Doncaster to London for a woman with a healing laparotomy.

• Specialist nutritional support and home-care during the "recovery" phases between treatments.

For a little context, each round of chemotherapy costs between

£6,000 - £7500.

Each consultation is £500.

Even something small like the train journeys to London being £30 -- so truly everything helps, no matter how big or small.