Help Sue Smith with costs associated with Brain Cancer

On the weeks leading up to the 28th May, Mum was having some involuntarily movements with her left hand. She didn’t think much of it to begin with. But on the 28th she had a seizure. Dad took her to Wodonga ED, where they were fast acting and administered her some anti seizure medication and took her for a CT scan. This showed 2 tumours on Mum’s brain. As Mum had breast cancer less than 12 months prior, it was first thought that this was secondary breast cancer. She was taken off in the ambulance to St Vincent’s Private Melbourne the following day, and had a craniotomy by the amazing Dr Chung on the 30th. Mum being the amazingly positive person she is bounced back from her surgery amazingly. Even FaceTiming us when she got back to her room cracking her usual jokes.

The following days were agonising awaiting the results of the tumours. On the morning of the 5th June the Nurse Unit Manager approached Mum and Dad and informed them Dr Chung was wanting a family meeting at 4pm. I’ll never forget that phone call from Mum that morning, it was my first day of work and straight away I knew things weren’t good. Josh, Jake, Tay and I quickly made arrangements and were on the road to Melbourne. The following hours felt like an entire lifetime. 4pm finally arrived and Dr Chung entered the room. The words he said to us will stick with me forever. Dr Chung said he was able to remove all of the tumours, and when they are sent away they are graded is a 1 to a 4. Mums tumours were a grade 4. So basically what this means is they are an aggressive cancer that is not curable. He wrote down the words ‘Glioblastoma Multiforme’ for us on a piece of paper. Our whole world came crashing down. I had done enough googling before the results come back, and this one I was terrified of!

The median age of survival with this cancer is a devastating 12-18 months. There are some people who are thriving and surviving with this cancer, and if anyone can smash it out of the park, it is this amazing woman. She is determined to do absolutely anything she can to fight this awful disease!

But what this means is that Mum is going to need extra funds both for any extra natural therapies, any clinical trials that often incur costs, the ability to take trips to other hospitals if they can help her further, and just to be able to create memories with her loved ones because our time is precious. Mum’s diagnosis also means she can’t drive at this time and has some deficits, so Dad has had to take an extended period of leave to care for her, so any funds would help them immensely!

Mum is always the first one there for everyone, she has helped so many people with her kindness and generosity. She is the most selfless and beautiful woman. It’s very hard for her to ask for and accept any help, but she deserves the world