Nicky's Chance to Beat Cancer

FEATURED IN BBC2'S HOSPITAL episode 2 #hospital #BBC2 @BBCTwo
My name is Nicky. I am planning a wedding with the man I love, while trying to beat an aggressive cancer that has returned. My local surgeons have only proposed more chemotherapy. I do not believe this is my only hope? I have done masses of research, to find out if I can have any another treatments, standard or complimentary, either in the UK or abroad.  I am one of the UK's only female jousters and stunt riders so my aim is to get back into the saddle and back to health..

Each way I turn, the costs for treatment are terrifying. No one talks about the cost of cancer. And I am determined to try and find a way to stay alive.
So I am asking for help....
If you want to you can donate below, hold a coffee morning, sell some cakes, organise a marathon...anything will help. And I’m so grateful for any help at all.


You can also help by sharing my story. I want to help other women and raise awareness about the difficulties facing ladies with Ovarian Cancer in the UK. There are hundreds of brave women who simply cannot access these drugs due to the fact that they are unaffordable.


In the middle of planning to join my Jousting Team in the USA in 2015, I was diagnosed with cancer. Life came to a halt. I had a total of 9-10" of cancer removed from my ovaries/pelvis, along with some internal organs, stomach wall and stomach apron. I had two big abdominal surgeries followed by a combination of two aggressive chemotherapies. At the same time, I had a double-whammy diagnosis of being BRCA + . That was also devastating. Anyway, treatment knocked things on the head for 10 months. My cancer has returned at a fast rate. I do not want to be another statistic. But to beat it or try, I need help.
The last year has been a rollercoaster. Every month, I was petrified that I would be told it had come back.

The dreams that my fiancé and I held, are getting harder- We lost our baby and chance of starting a family, so now, the priority is to concentrate on staying alive.


At the speed this cancer grows, I need to start treatment very soon. The immediate chance I have found, is a large surgery, proposed by a radical surgeon in London. This would be bigger than the last two operations, and would be followed by 6 more months of chemotherapy, plus ideally a new maintenance drug, a PARP Inhibitor called Olaparib. This sounds like a plan right?

Here is the problem....

Because this will be my 2nd time on chemo, and not my 3rd time, Olaparib isn’t available to me on the NHS. Despite the fact that this treatment might work, the drugs are not licensed for a 1st recurrence for ovarian cancer in the UK.

I’ve no choice but to pay for the drug.


This drug costs approximately £60,000 for just over a year. AstraZeneca have just signed as deal with the NHS to  provide it for free if you self-fund the first year. If it wasn’t the only thing that might help me, I would not even consider it. This is the first ovarian cancer treatment to get approval from the NHS in over a decade and will still be subsidised by AstraZeneca.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/12045335/AstraZeneca-cancer-drug-approved-on-NHS-but-with-strings-attached.html

I have put myself on an extensive Supplement Protocol combined with complementary therapies, which appears to be slowing the progression of the cancer and helps to keep pain down, but to have treatment in London, and to carry on with this Protocol, I am looking at total costs  around £6486 with travel, consultations, accomodation near the hospital etc. Included within this, I would also like to take part in a cancer drug trial, which is showing promising results.

My fiance and family have helped me hugely, and I have had savings that I have poured into treatments up to this point. However, it is becomingly increasingly difficult to fund or even contemplate, the upcoming costs.


So this is where I am asking for help. If we can find enough people who are willing to donate the cost of what they’d spend on a beer or a coffee, I’d have enough to start a course of treatment.

The minimum I need to raise is £6486, but if I ever got to £60,000 for the drug that might save me, then I can only try?
Phase 1 of my goal is £6,486
Phase 2 of my goal is £60,000 for Olaparib or over and above that to be able to consider cancer treatment in Europe.
Any donation will make a huge difference, helping me get the treatment I need so I can beat this horrible illness. Even if you can’t afford to spare anything, you can make a big difference just by sharing this page – if enough people read my story perhaps the NHS will consider a new license for this drug for Ovarian Cancer.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Nicky & Family

Please help my special reason to have this treatment: being onew of the few female jousters and stunt riders in the country, I want to get back to full health and get back to doing what I am passionate about and also marry my soulmate.
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In the case of anything happening to me during this time, all proceeds remaining will be split between ChemoHero and Penny Brohn Cancer Care.

In the event of any new drugs coming on the market, or research trials, I will use remaining funds to carry on my research protocol and towards continuing treatments either in UK or abroad.