Help Amy Fight Cancer

Dear friends,

I'm Kate Goulson and I'm fundraising on behalf of my sister, Amy Langley.

At the end of November this year, my beautiful sister, Amy, received the devastating news that, at the age of only 40, she has developed colorectal cancer.

It came as a complete shock to us all, as she has had none of the expected symptoms, and the cancer was only discovered by chance after she had gone to the doctors about a seemingly unrelated issue and her blood tests showed some anomalies. Scans then uncovered what they thought was a large cyst, and she underwent emergency surgery to remove it, at which point they discovered that it was, in fact, an 8 cm malignant tumor. With no immediately obvious site of origin, she was informed that it was metastatic, stage 4 cancer attached to her bowel, and they had been unable to remove the entire thing during the surgery. We knew then that, though the doctors would do everything they could to find the primary cancer and treat it, she was facing the most difficult of journeys.

My 70-year-old mum had already flown out to Amy’s home town of Sayulita, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, to be with her during her initial surgery, and has since put her life on hold to stay with Amy and her two children, my niece and nephew, 13-year-old Maya and 11-year-old Amaru, for as long as it takes. I flew out to be with them and offer whatever help I could at the beginning of December, during which time Amy underwent further tests and scans, which uncovered that the primary cancer was in her colon. She is a strong and resilient person, but this diagnosis, and what it might mean for her future, are beyond difficult to deal with.

To compound matters, the medical tests and treatments she needs are expensive. Mexico’s health services can be extraordinary, and offer speedy diagnosis and comprehensive care, but it comes at a cost. Her initial operation and tests so far have cost more than £10,000, with many further tests, treatments and medication costs to come, on top of transportation to and from the treatment centres, all of which are over an hour’s drive from where she lives.

This is money that Amy simply doesn’t have, and our family have rallied around to raise. Although she makes a fair living for herself and her children as a musician, playing saxophone with several local bands and solo performances, the damage to her abdominal muscles during surgery, on top of the mental strain of coming to terms with her circumstances, means that she has been unable to play since. Even if she could, the money she makes would never be enough to cover the sums needed to fund her treatment.

Heartbreakingly, this Christmas was meant to be a long-awaited reunion for the whole family, with Amy, Maya and Amaru due to visit the UK for the first time in 8 years, and us all able to spend the festive period together. Instead, Amy is facing this frightening and uncertain future.

We are determined to do everything we can to keep Amy, my niece and my nephew safe, and make sure that she gets every treatment available to give her the best possible chance of beating this horrendous cancer. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

There has been a much-welcomed ray of light amidst the darkness recently. After weeks of bad news, Amy’s latest test results - DNA sequencing from the original tumor, and a full-body PET scan - revealed that the cancer is actually only stage 3, which means a brighter prognosis. Her oncologists can now offer her a combination treatment of intensive chemotherapy, followed by more surgery, and then more chemotherapy, which has a much higher chance of clearing the cancer from her body. This has given us all that extra bit of hope and energy to make sure she gets these treatments immediately, and we are resolved to raise the money to make it happen. The first course of chemotherapy treatment will cost £5,000, with the further surgery and follow-up chemo likely to cost another £10,000, hence our fundraising target of £15,000.

Anything you can spare to help us reach our goal, and sharing this fundraiser as widely as you can, will mean the world to Amy, and to us all. Please help to get my brilliant, beautiful sister well and healthy again, and ensure that Maya and Amaru have their extraordinary mum with them for many, many years.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.