Sandra’s cancer fight & bucket list

Hi my names Aaron & live in the seaside town of withernsea The past 12 months have been pretty tough for everyone with COVID & multiple lockdowns, but on top of that me & my family have sadly had to deal with a lot more than that.

 It started in October 2019 when my dad was diagnosed with early stages of bowel cancer , this was obviously a massive shock & very upsetting , luckily it was found early enough & was removed via operation a month later, glad to say after a few weeks rest my dad was back at work (lorry driving) & been his silly self.
I thought my family would never have to go through anything so scary like that again,  sadly I was wrong. A couple of months later my mums partner Andy was diagnosed with prostate cancer another sock to us all , but like my dad it was caught early enough to be operated on & removed , after a few weeks rest Andy was back tohis active happy self.
For me & my family to deal with cancer once was enough, twice within 3 months was horrific & just like after my dad recovered we thought nothing that horrible would happen to us again , but sadly yet again I was. On good Friday of 2020 my mum had horrendous pain on the right hand side of her chest it got to the point where an ambulance was called & she was taken to Hull Royal where they did a chest X-ray to rule out covid, it wasn’t covid they found but a mass in her chest cavity, as covid restrictions were in place no one could sit with my mum as she found out this devastating news, once we all found this out was upsetting for everyone & we stayed positive until further tests were carried out at Castle hill hospital’squeens centre which is a highly rated for cancer diagnosis & treatment.
The results did comeback & sadly it was cancer, it is called a pleuaral tumor which is a rare form of cancer that is found between the lungs & the chest wall (makes up for less than 1% of lung cancers) becauseof it’s location it is near impossible to operate so other treatment would be required.  Mum first started with one dose of radiotherapy to try ease the pain , this did work on top of all the other pain medication , the doctors then wanted to try chemotherapy, this was a very harsh drug that made my mum very ill , she had five sessions of chemo & unfortunately didn’t affect the tumor growth , the doctors then wanted to try a newer & more successful medication called immunotherapy this drug was less harsh & didn’t make mum as ill, at this point mum had been going through treatment for nearly six months & was taking it’s toll on her mental health as well as physical health , it had also affected my mental health seeing my mum upset & in pain every day & night. Mum has now had five sessions of the new immunotherapy & a month later had a scan we stayed positive until yesterday (5/1/21) when my mum went for her results & sadly was not good news at all, the tumor has grown meaning the immunotherapy had noeffect & carrying on with the treatment would make mum even more ill for no reason, so the treatment has been stopped & there’s nothing else they can do. We are now looking at other possible treatments & already have an appointment booked at the “Christie trust” a NHS hospital that specialises in rare cancers.
we are really hoping they can help mum. We had a very emotional talk last night when she returned from hospital with my uncle who had taken her for the results yesterday, she said I was her world & whatever happens she wants me to be happy in life, do things I want to do, go travelling, get married, have a family. It really hits home when my mum may never get to be agrandma or come to my wedding, it’s just not fair why do bad things always happen to good people, I always thought it’ll never happen to me & here i am writing about the worst year of my life.

Mum has already stated making up a bucket list, but with her obviously been off work & me taking a lot of time off from work to look after her it’s taken a hit on us financially as well, another worry we don’t need but it’s  taken a back seat to everything else at the minute, but i just want to be able to do everything on mums list & not have to worry about the cost of the journeys and me not working. I want to make lasting happy memories with my mum & get great photos were ever we go! , this is we’re you guys & gals come in, anything you give will be a massive help to completing my mums list.

Thanks in advance Aaron & the rest of the Temperton & Taylor family Xx