My Dad, Brian, 65 who has Stage 4 Kidney Cancer

Hi, my name is Georgina and my Dad, Brian, has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer with a life expectancy of 4 years. Although this is the average life expectancy for the disease and treatment offered by the NHS, it is only a guide. Depending on how he responds to treatment, it could go up or down. However, before I tell you more about what he has and why we are doing this, I wanted to tell you more about who he is…

My dad is never happier than when he is able to do some form of exercise. He gets up at 5am every morning to go on a 3-hour walk. He loves walking at this time of day as it is calm and peaceful, and it gives him time to enjoy listening to his music. My dad has an artistic side and enjoys painting. He also really enjoys swimming and cycling (a hobby he picked up when he got separated from us and stranded in Cape Verde for 18 months, due to the Coronavirus pandemic). My dad loves history and, as a family, we do a lot of day trips to visit historic homes throughout England. These trips as a child encouraged me to pursue a degree in History! So, you could say his passion inspired my passion! We also compete against each other in games of chess every now and then, but he often wins (I reckon he cheats haha).

When my Dad started this journey back in July, he first received results of a tumour around his kidney that needed to be excised that was later diagnosed as kidney cancer. After further scans, they found that it had spread to his lungs and a nearby lymph node. The cancer had metastasized, which means it is no longer living off the kidney and is now independently in the lungs. So, even if they were to remove the kidney, it can still spread from the lungs.

As a part of his pre-op testing, they found out his heart had suffered a 5.5cm aneurism, including a leaky valve (a birth defect). To fix this, it would require open heart surgery where they stop the heart for several minutes. The NHS haven't told us yet if they will offer him surgery to address this. We have been told that they will be prioritising immunotherapy over surgery for his kidney, however, this is being openly contested by the kidney surgeon due to the severity of my Dad’s case. They feel it should take more of a priority to surgically remove the kidney before starting any other course of treatment, to provide him with the best odds as his care progresses. We should find out more details of a confirmed treatment plan shortly which will allow us to decide the best course of action, as a family – NHS vs Private care.

In the meantime, my uncle has been looking into alternatives treatments, second opinions and private medical care. He has spoken to a private heart surgeon who said that if they did the heart operation, they could likely remove the tumour in the lungs at the same time as repairing the heart, however, it would be £25k! Although this was a general estimate, as he hasn't seen any of his charts, we started thinking about the costs ahead of us…

He's been scheduled for his first treatment session in October and we are looking for support with the transport to and from appointments/consultations (e.g. taxis, peak-time trains), consultation fees, and private medical options. Any money raised would go toward these costs.

Thank you for taking the time read more about his story. Any donations received will go a long way in supporting us in the days ahead and will be very gratefully received.