On 21st March 2023 my cousin, Natalie was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. After multiple blood tests, biopsy from the groin, a bone marrow, CT and PET scans being in 4 different hospitals almost every day we then got the news that the cancer was at stage 4, the cancer is in her blood, her bones, and working its way through her organs starting with her spleen. Natalie is a fun loving, intelligent and outgoing person, she is also an amazing mum to little Oliver who is only 9 years of age. She has always thrived in life to reach her full potential, having a degree in health and social wellbeing and was currently studying another degree in therapeutic counselling before she felt unwell. Being 29 years of age, going to the gym 5-6 times a week and being such a health fanatic, natalie was the last person we would ever expect this to happen to, which just shows it can literally happen to anybody. Us as a family alongside Natalie are trying to come to terms with everything that is happening right now as everything is still raw, it has been truly heartbreaking but the love and support around natalie is helping her to fight back and try to get through such a tough time. With the cancer being uncurable and it being at such a late stage, Natalie is starting her treatment, although the treatment we hope will shrink the lymphoma, there is a chance she could only be in remission for around 1 or 2 years. With that being said, there is only so much chemotherapy they can offer as with it being so aggressive it would do more harm than good to keep having the same treatment for a less amount of time in remission. This has absolutely devastated everybody who loves her, and we want to start to fundraise and accept donations to be able to receive help from another country who may be able to offer better treatment to prolong the remission process and have her stay with her little boy as long as she can. We are praying that the treatment will work how it should and she can be in remission for a longer period of time, but we don’t have time to waste and if it comes to her having to leave to another country then we want to make sure we have the funds in place so she doesn’t have to wait. As a family we want to raise funds but also raise awareness of the cancer that Natalie has, as being such a young age and others in a similar situation if not being younger than her we want to help as much as we can to make others aware so they can catch it earlier. We also want to strongly put forward that whatever money isn’t used towards treatment will be donated to charities and research. We appreciate everybody who can contribute, we also appreciate everybody who has stepped forward to donate into the raffles and take part in sponsorships in Natalie’s name. As her cousin and her sister there are only 2 of us in charge, but we do pass on all the messages and the love and support onto her, she’s so overwhelmed with all the love and she sends love to each and every person who is supporting her.