In 2014 my mum, Valerie Coulson, was diagnosed with Stage Three C Ovarian Cancer. It had already spread and we were told to expect the worse with a three month terminal diagnosis. Mum was not prepared for this to be how her story ended, so after three rounds of Chemotheraphy, a major operation and drain, and three more rounds we embarked on a journey to fund a non NHS funded drug called Avastin. Simply put, for the few who can access it, it literally buys time. It acts as a maintenance drug to keep the cancer from growing as rapidly.

We have been lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing friends and family who for the past TWELVE years have helped us to access this drug whenever we have needed it due to the cancer returning.

We are now back in that situation and it’s more desperate than ever. The NHS won't

support mums need for this even though we have proven time and time again that it works for her. Leeds Hospital cannot facilitate the treatment even if we can raise the funds due to a lack of capacity, so we are having to seek the treatment in Manchester at nearly £2000 every three weeks. This is not a short term

fix and the answer to the question of “how long do you need to raise that money for?” is “until it comes back”. This could be around 48 months. We have sought to ask the government for help but we were told mum was “not financially viable”. As though her life is not worth the investment.

As any family would, we are seeking to fundraise by any means possible to ensure we all can have longer with mum.

She is the strongest woman you will ever meet so we are attempting to do all we can to ensure she can access this. All our fundraising efforts will be centralised to this page for all helping.

Thanks for reading and donating. We can never thank people enough for what they have done for mum. Much love ❤️