Help Cara fight Cancer

In October 2017 I woke up one morning with stomach pains.  I went to work but the pain got worse as the day went on, a severe ‘cutting’ pain.  By the evening it was so bad that I ended up in an ambulance going to A & E at Leicester Royal.   I had to go on my own because my husband had to stay at home with our daughter.

A CT scan the next morning showed an ‘inflammatory mass' in my abdomen and the plan was to have antibiotics to reduce the inflammation and then operate to remove it.  My temperature then spiked and the doctors realised that I had sepsis so I was rushed into theatre for emergency surgery where they removed around 12 inches of my large and small intestines.

Around two weeks later I had more pains and went back into hospital as a precaution and during this stay one of the surgeons on duty told us that the mass they removed was bowel cancer.  It goes without saying that this was a massive shock.

I started chemo in November and by the end of the regime in June 2018 I had been readmitted to hospital 7 times because of side effects of the chemotherapy, including the local walk-in centre on Christmas Day. My husband gave up his job to look after me in April 2018.

We knew from the start that there was a mark on my liver although repeated CT & MRI scans could not identify it as cancerous or not.  In July 2018 I was given the 99% all clear with one more scan needed for confirmation.  We had a great holiday in the Canaries and although I needed a wheelchair to get around because I was not long off chemo, it was a lovely holiday.

Later in the summer of 2018 we had a consultation with the liver surgeon, which we assumed was to plan to remove the small lesion we already new about.  However, we were told the worst news possible - that the cancer had spread throughout my abdomen, liver and left lung and that there was nothing more that could be done.  We had to go home to tell our 13 year old daughter the news which was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do.

The news got to another surgeon who refused to give up on me and she agreed to operate on my abdomen as long as the liver and lung surgeons agreed to go along with her, which they did.  In December 2018 I have a bowel resection and ileostomy and historectomy, along with a few other bits removed for good measure.  In February 2019 I had 4 secondary metastatic tumours removed from my left lung.

A follow up scan showed that there was a small secondary met on the right lung but worse than this, they discovered that there is now peritoneal cancer around the liver which cannot be operated on.  
Because the single one in the right lung is now several nodules there is no treatment to cure me, only to make the rest of my life as long and comfortable as possible, and this week we had to tell our daughter again that her mum is going to die.  I am heart-broken that I am going to be leaving my angel daughter so early in her life and won’t be around to give those talks about boyfriends, etc.  Also, I won’t be there for my mum when she will need me while she has always been there for me.  Last but not least, my husband, my rock, will be alone.


The best treatment for me is one that the NHS does not fund in the UK, called Avastin. It needs to be privately funded, it is estimated at £1500- £1800 per session. With 12 sessions needed at a time. Which works out to £42000 for a year. Something which we can not afford. 
 Avastin can help patients with adavnced bowel cancer which has spread to other organs and is the standard treatment for bowel cancer in many countries around the world.  This is a targeted therapy drug given alongside chemotherapy which can extend life, reduce tumour size and even put cancer patients into remission.


Without help we can’t have this drug due to its cost.  Avastin costs approximately £21,000 per 12 cycle treatment and if the drug works I would need this drug indefinitely.  There have been many success stories of this drug helping people and I would give anything to life longer to see my beautiful 14 year old daughter grow and be with my husband just that little bit longer .  My heart is truly broken.
 
Thank you so much for reading my story, I am so grateful for your donation however big or small.