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Megan Deserves A Life Without Agony
0% complete
£23,130 raised of £35K
614 donations
My name is Richard, and I am writing this as a dad who is heartbroken and desperate to save his daughter, my best friend – Megan.
Megan is only 30. She should be travelling, laughing, and building her career as a children’s nurse. Instead, she is bed-bound most days, in relentless daily agony from stage 4 endometriosis, alongside Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and other complex health problems.
For 13 years the NHS dismissed her pain until the disease had spread so severely it was fusing her organs together and beginning to penetrate them. By the time we scraped together money for private surgery with a highly regarded UK endometriosis specialist, her case was already extremely advanced. That surgery left her worse – with permanent nerve damage, daily self-catheterisation, and now legally disabled. On her better days she relies on mobility aids and a wheelchair, and on her worst she is completely bed-bound.
Specialists have confirmed that her only chance now is urgent robotic excision surgery carried out by a full multidisciplinary team of experts. A standard laparoscopy is no longer safe because of her Ehlers-Danlos and existing nerve damage. Robotic surgery is the only way to remove the widespread disease without risking further permanent organ or nerve damage. Sadly the team she now needs cannot be accessed together through a single NHS treatment pathway, meaning this requires private treatment.
Since starting this fundraiser, Megan’s health has deteriorated further, sadly thought to be linked to medication she has needed for her endometriosis. She has spent a considerable amount of time back in hospital with repeated adrenal crises, requiring urgent, life-saving treatment and will now need even more medication. Watching her go through this has made us more desperate than ever to get Megan this surgery!
Despite the strongest drugs – Oxycodone, Morphine, Fentanyl – her pain never stops. She vomits and passes out from agony, screams during bowel movements, and her bladder and bowel are constantly inflamed. She collapses asleep mid-conversation, while eating, or even walking. She cannot wake on her own and needs someone to help her out of bed every day due to the chronic fatigue endometriosis causes. Even worse, she has now lost all hope. Her mental health has rapidly declined. She was once so positive and full of laughter, but being trapped in constant pain and missing out on life has left her broken. As her dad, it is devastating to see the light go out of her eyes. We are in a cruel catch-22: in order for her mental health to improve, her physical health must improve first, and our only hope is this surgery.
Megan gave everything to the NHS as a children’s nurse. She worked in intensive care saving babies and children after cardiac arrests and delivering end-of-life care when palliative, then in A&E; caring for children of all ages. I never knew how she coped with such heartbreaking work, but it showed the strength and kindness she carries in her heart. She put others before herself every single day. Now she deserves that same care back.
We managed to pay privately once, but it has left Megan more disabled and in worse pain. This surgery sadly costs thousands. We cannot do this again without help, and without it, Megan has no hope.
PLEASE, if you can, help me give my daughter and best friend back her life, and one day give her hope of being the mum she has always dreamed of becoming.
Richard,
Megan’s Dad.
Funds raised will first and foremost go towards Megan’s £35,000 specialist surgery and the vital aftercare she needs, including physiotherapy, pain specialists, mental health support, occupational therapy, specialist follow-up and medical equipment. After such a major operation, this care is essential to give our Megan the chance of a normal life again. The recovery is just as important!
If we are fortunate enough to have funds left after Megan’s surgery and essential care, we would love to give her the chance to preserve her fertility, which has now been recommended by her consultants because of the progression of her disease. Megan has dreamed of becoming a mum for as long as I can remember, even as a little girl, and we would love to protect that dream for her future, if at all possible!
Megan is only 30. She should be travelling, laughing, and building her career as a children’s nurse. Instead, she is bed-bound most days, in relentless daily agony from stage 4 endometriosis, alongside Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and other complex health problems.
For 13 years the NHS dismissed her pain until the disease had spread so severely it was fusing her organs together and beginning to penetrate them. By the time we scraped together money for private surgery with a highly regarded UK endometriosis specialist, her case was already extremely advanced. That surgery left her worse – with permanent nerve damage, daily self-catheterisation, and now legally disabled. On her better days she relies on mobility aids and a wheelchair, and on her worst she is completely bed-bound.
Specialists have confirmed that her only chance now is urgent robotic excision surgery carried out by a full multidisciplinary team of experts. A standard laparoscopy is no longer safe because of her Ehlers-Danlos and existing nerve damage. Robotic surgery is the only way to remove the widespread disease without risking further permanent organ or nerve damage. Sadly the team she now needs cannot be accessed together through a single NHS treatment pathway, meaning this requires private treatment.
Since starting this fundraiser, Megan’s health has deteriorated further, sadly thought to be linked to medication she has needed for her endometriosis. She has spent a considerable amount of time back in hospital with repeated adrenal crises, requiring urgent, life-saving treatment and will now need even more medication. Watching her go through this has made us more desperate than ever to get Megan this surgery!
Despite the strongest drugs – Oxycodone, Morphine, Fentanyl – her pain never stops. She vomits and passes out from agony, screams during bowel movements, and her bladder and bowel are constantly inflamed. She collapses asleep mid-conversation, while eating, or even walking. She cannot wake on her own and needs someone to help her out of bed every day due to the chronic fatigue endometriosis causes. Even worse, she has now lost all hope. Her mental health has rapidly declined. She was once so positive and full of laughter, but being trapped in constant pain and missing out on life has left her broken. As her dad, it is devastating to see the light go out of her eyes. We are in a cruel catch-22: in order for her mental health to improve, her physical health must improve first, and our only hope is this surgery.
Megan gave everything to the NHS as a children’s nurse. She worked in intensive care saving babies and children after cardiac arrests and delivering end-of-life care when palliative, then in A&E; caring for children of all ages. I never knew how she coped with such heartbreaking work, but it showed the strength and kindness she carries in her heart. She put others before herself every single day. Now she deserves that same care back.
We managed to pay privately once, but it has left Megan more disabled and in worse pain. This surgery sadly costs thousands. We cannot do this again without help, and without it, Megan has no hope.
PLEASE, if you can, help me give my daughter and best friend back her life, and one day give her hope of being the mum she has always dreamed of becoming.
Richard,
Megan’s Dad.
Funds raised will first and foremost go towards Megan’s £35,000 specialist surgery and the vital aftercare she needs, including physiotherapy, pain specialists, mental health support, occupational therapy, specialist follow-up and medical equipment. After such a major operation, this care is essential to give our Megan the chance of a normal life again. The recovery is just as important!
If we are fortunate enough to have funds left after Megan’s surgery and essential care, we would love to give her the chance to preserve her fertility, which has now been recommended by her consultants because of the progression of her disease. Megan has dreamed of becoming a mum for as long as I can remember, even as a little girl, and we would love to protect that dream for her future, if at all possible!
Organizer
Richard Gomersall
Organizer