Jessica Robinson

Hi, my name is Harriet and I’d like to tell you all a story of my sister.

Jessica was a strong and passionate 31yr old who was due to be starting her first year as a teaching assistant at her 5 yr old daughters primary school when she started experiencing “wisdom tooth pain”

She had several appointments with both the dentist and her GP, being told a different diagnosis with each visit, by the end of the 6 weeks holiday she was laid up in bed, In too much pain to move or eat, when she finally saw a doctor who took one look at her, listened to her chest and sent her to hospital for a chest X-ray.

They’d found shadows in her lungs.

They took her in for biopsies and MRI’s, told us she has cancer in the left lung, fluid around her heart and swelling of the brain.

Off home we go again…

2 days later and she’s experiencing severe abdominal pain, after having a home visit from our GP, we’re sent back up to hospital, this time with clear instructions to have an abdominal X-ray.

The hospital waited 5 hours, with her heart rate sat at 150 and climbing, until finally agreeing she needed that abdominal scan and when they did the scan, they discovered the fluid around her heart had grown to an extreme amount and both chambers on the right side of her heart had collapsed, meaning she needed urgent transport to the Royal Papworths, the UK’s leading heart hospital, for a chest drain. They drained 2.5 litres of fluid (normal amounts are 10-15 millilitres)

The Royal Papworth fixed her up as best they could and we were transferred back to our local hospital where we got the horrible news that she had stage 4 inoperable lung cancer. We were told there was a small possibility of treatment, potentially giving her upto 18 months, but if she didn’t get “well enough” for treatment it was only 4-6 months.

She never got well enough for treatment, by the time we had Jessica’s second oncology appointment the cancer had spread, swallowing her entire left lung, wrapping itself around her aorta and infused in her spine. Treatment is now off the table.

45 days after her initial diagnosis, she passed away.

As much as Jessica is no longer in pain and suffering, the battle for us (her family) is far from over. Jessica was a single parent to her beautiful daughter, the father is an abusive alcoholic who’s been out of her life since she was a tiny baby, only randomly showing up a couple of times over the years, unannounced and leaving shortly after. We now face a long and expensive court battle to win custody of her 5yr old daughter as well as being evicted from our house (for the landlord to sell), and having to sort Jessica’s funeral at the same time.

We would greatly appreciate any donations to help Annette (my mother) and I, to win this battle and secure the safety of my niece and granting Jessica’s final wishes.

Thank you all.