Help Tiina mother of 4 young children fight Cancer

More info: https://www.facebook.com/SaveTiina

Thank you all for helping, this page will remain here as a memory to Tiina and her fight against the Cancer.

Tiina has passed away last Saturday after a 2 year struggle against a disease that has no known cure yet.

She died with me holding her hand.


In Tiina's memory:

Help Tiina Fight Cancer! (Donations are not possible anymore by using this website).
For contacting us, use the contact button at the bottom of this website.

Last Update to front page after update 39: 
* Removed original text since it is not relevant anymore.
* Special thanks to all donors that believed in our fight!!! Love and peace to you all!!!
* This website / story will remain here as long as Gofundme will leave it here.
* Any new updates will occur only in the event of a change in the course of Tiina's disease.
* Updated picture with newly arrived glasses, so Tiina can see again with the one remaining good eye (thanks to  Maarit from Specsavers Iso Omena for her help!)

Story:

Tiina is dying from a very rare form of cancer called eye melanoma or eye cancer. Tiina’s cancer is so rare that is does not have an approved working treatment yet, doctors gave her less than a year to live. (update: 24 months ago now)

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Photo: 2 days before treatment after diagnosis (on the beach which youngest child of 3)

Eye Melanoma (cancer) is very rare, especially with younger people (under 65).

In terms of treatment, this has been a massive barrier, as the doctors have no clue on how to combat this disease. The biggest complication is that the cancer has spread not only to the liver but also to the soft tissue under the skin and her breasts. (update: also the splene).

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photo: 1 day before 1st chemo, 10 minutes before cutting her hair.


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Tiina is a caring mother of 4 young children in the age of 15, 8, 7 and 3, she is also a hard working house wife and a good friend to many, always ready to help anyone if they have problems, she is truly a saint

She loves to go horseback riding, be active with her children and loves and cares for nature, animals and the forest.

August 2016, when she was on a holiday with her children and her husband,  suddenly all changed when she woke up one morning with blurred vision in one eye.

The doctors at the holiday location, send her to Helsinki for further investigation due to this blurred vision.

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Photo: June 2018 cutting of Tiina's long hair 1 day before chemo, to save it as a memorable to the kids.


The first week in September 2016 Tiina and her mother were diagnosed with cancer, from which her mother died in April 2017 (brain tumour) just after her father died in January 2017, of prostate cancer.

In October 2016 the cancer in Tiina's eye was treated with radiation therapy, it was painful but bearable, she is very strong.

All seemed to go well: the primary tumour shrunk to half in size, until last year May 2018, when the ultra sound scan revealed suspicious spots in the liver.

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Photo: First chemo therapy June 2018

After a new CT scan of her whole body, the cancer was diagnosed to have spread to both her liver and the soft tissue under her skin on several places at once. She was referred to another oncologist specialised in skin melanoma (skin cancer) because of the lack of a specialist in Finland for spread eye melanoma.

Since June 2018 Tiina has been undergoing standard chemotherapy normally used for skin melanoma, but unfortunately on the next CT scans the tumours showed to have grown and the chemotherapy was not working as previous research had already predicted.

A new medicine also for skin melanoma (MEK inhibitor) was used to see if this would stop the tumour cells from growing.

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Photo: The rash on her face (and legs) is a side effect of the MEK-inhibitor Mekinist ™

This treatment seemed to slow down the growth of the tumours but sadly the effect was temporary: the tumours showed strong growth again this February, which has made our search for a cure even more urgent.

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Video: Tiina doing what she loves... (click to play video)

PLEASE HELP TIINA BEAT THIS CANCER!

If anyone reading this, knows of any oncologist anywhere else in the world that has experience and expertise on this kind of cancer, we would be delighted if you can give us details and means of contact?


For more information please check out the Facebook page dedicated to saving her life: https://www.facebook.com/SaveTiina (not available in Finland)


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Legal Disclaimer:

This crowdfunding campaign was run in the U.S.A. and payments were collected in The Netherlands.
The previous appeals for donations in this campaign, were targeted Globally (for use outside of Finland).
Any referral to Finland was meant to appeal to Finnish expats and Tiina’s friends living all over the world.

We advocate full transparency and for that reason a donor can request an account of this fundraiser from us directly, we will voluntary provide one within reasonable time.  Donors can contact us by clicking on the contact button (envelope) next to the organizer name at the bottom of this page.