Treatment for a cancerous brain tumour

Maisie is my clumsy, funny and amazing 14 year old niece, who in early January was diagnosed with a brain tumour, this is her story.

This story contains many blessings. The first blessing was that Maisie lost their spectacles. As the last eye test was done in the UK and we had now returned home to India, we went to the local eye hospital for a retest. A sharp-eyed optometrist picked up a slight shaking in her eyeballs, a condition called nystagmus. She was very clear that this should be reviewed by a neurologist to rule out anything serious. Eleven days later, Maisie was operated on to remove a tumour located at the top of their spine on the cerebellum. The speed at which we were able to access exceptionally high quality care is a testament to the excellent healthcare available in India. However there is of course a price tag attached to this, albeit far lower than it would be in the West. We are extremely grateful to those who have already come forward to help cover the costs associated with the operation.

Although the tumour was removed successfully, the pathology report showed that the type of tumour was an aggressive malignant type called medulloblastoma and so an intensive course of 6 weeks of radiation therapy followed by chemotherapy will be necessary.

We are trying to raise the funds to proceed with the Proton beam therapy offered at the Apollo Cancer Center in Chennai, South India. This type of radiation therapy is targeted to only the affected areas meaning that the healthy tissue in the brain and all major organs will not be as highly affected, as they would be with traditional radiation therapy. However this treatment is extremely expensive and despite negotiating a considerable discount the cost will run to 27-29,000 GBP (28-30 lakh rupees). The treatment should start within 2 weeks for it to be most effective.

Many of our family members and friends have already come forward to help and we are using our savings as well as borrowing some funds. But we are still facing a shortfall of £13,500.

We are reaching out in hope that you can help us by donating towards the costs, or by sharing this story on social