Gilly's brain cancer recovery
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Gillian, i'm 31 years old, and one month ago I was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer (on 10th November 2015). The general progosis for my cancer is typically not more than 2 years, 5 years if you're lucky. I underwent brain surgery on November 3rd 2015 to remove the tumour, which was successfully resected, but I will nevertheless undergo 6 weeks of radiotherapy with combined oral chemotherapy, which is the standard care for this cancer which is called Anaplastic Astrocytoma. The initial 6 weeks will then be followed by a further 6 months/cycles of oral chemotherapy (Temodar) in order give the best chances of preventing the cancer from coming back.
I would like to raise funds for my eventual recovery (after these 6 months of immune-system-destroying treatments which are radiation and chemotherapy) to be able to go to a cancer clinic in Germany where their focus is based on immune-system boosting therapies and that is where I believe i can really finally heal from the damage and toxicity caused by the radiotherapy and chemotherapy and I hope to prevent the cancer from coming back, which if it does, usually comes back in a more agressive or malignant form. In those cases, general prognosis comes down to just 6 months! Very scary at 31 years old, or at any age for that matter.
I will be documenting daily the coming 6 weeks of radiotherapy to report back how I am feeling day to day, and to hopefully bring more awareness to future brain cancer patients who are caught in between knowing what treatments are best for you.
I would ideally need the funds before the summer of 2016 so i can pin down a place at a german clinic which will likely be either the Hufeland Klinik in the spa town of Bad Mergentheim, not far from Frankfurt, Germany, or the hospital BioMed which is near the French German border near the city of Strasbourg.
In the event that I do not manage to raise enough funds to afford a place in a German clinic, I shall, in that case, seek out the therapies offered in Germany in the UK. This ultimately means that instead of going to one clinic in Germany to receive all therapies in one place, I will instead seek out clinics in the UK who offer the same therapies, it will just mean that I will be going to multiple clinics as there is not one clinic which does all of them that I need like there is in Germany and Switzerland.
This crowd funding project means so much to me, not only as it will hopefully allow me to get to Germany to help me fully recover and get back to my strong healthy self again, but so that i can carry on with my life as soon as possible! I will be forever thankful for the rest of my life to have been given this opportunity to LIVE!
LOVE GILLY XOXO
I would like to raise funds for my eventual recovery (after these 6 months of immune-system-destroying treatments which are radiation and chemotherapy) to be able to go to a cancer clinic in Germany where their focus is based on immune-system boosting therapies and that is where I believe i can really finally heal from the damage and toxicity caused by the radiotherapy and chemotherapy and I hope to prevent the cancer from coming back, which if it does, usually comes back in a more agressive or malignant form. In those cases, general prognosis comes down to just 6 months! Very scary at 31 years old, or at any age for that matter.
I will be documenting daily the coming 6 weeks of radiotherapy to report back how I am feeling day to day, and to hopefully bring more awareness to future brain cancer patients who are caught in between knowing what treatments are best for you.
I would ideally need the funds before the summer of 2016 so i can pin down a place at a german clinic which will likely be either the Hufeland Klinik in the spa town of Bad Mergentheim, not far from Frankfurt, Germany, or the hospital BioMed which is near the French German border near the city of Strasbourg.
In the event that I do not manage to raise enough funds to afford a place in a German clinic, I shall, in that case, seek out the therapies offered in Germany in the UK. This ultimately means that instead of going to one clinic in Germany to receive all therapies in one place, I will instead seek out clinics in the UK who offer the same therapies, it will just mean that I will be going to multiple clinics as there is not one clinic which does all of them that I need like there is in Germany and Switzerland.
This crowd funding project means so much to me, not only as it will hopefully allow me to get to Germany to help me fully recover and get back to my strong healthy self again, but so that i can carry on with my life as soon as possible! I will be forever thankful for the rest of my life to have been given this opportunity to LIVE!
LOVE GILLY XOXO
Organizer
Gillian Bertram
Organizer
