Help John Beat Stage 4 Cancer
Donation protected
My name is Lorna, and I'm fundraising to raise money for life saving surgery for my husband and best friend, John.
John was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer on Father's Day 2020 following emergency surgery for suspected appendicitis. Instead of a burst appendix, the surgeons found a large tunour in his bowel that had caused a perforation. It was removed but unfortunately the cancer had already spread to his liver. He was 35 years old at diagnosis.
He's now had 6 months of the standard 1st line chemotherapy to try to reduce the tumour burden in the liver enough for it to become operable. Sadly following the latest scan, we were told that the cancer had actually grown while he was on the chemo.
The surgeons have said they don't think John's liver will ever be operable. This is obviously devastating and we want to do everything we can to keep him here with us. We have two beautiful little girls, aged just 3 and 1, and we want them to grow up with their doting daddy.
I found out about a clinical trial in Germany that is using live donor liver transplants for bowel cancer patients that have previously been deemed inoperable. This could be John's only chance. He needs to have stability on his next 2 months of chemotherapy and the window will be very narrow. This type of surgery is not currently undertaken in the UK for bowel cancer patients, so the oncologists don't know much about it. But any chance is one worth taking.
There are already several people (myself included) who are desperate to be John's living donor. The surgery itself is very expensive, as it involves 3 surgeries (one to remove part of the liver from the donor, and John would have two surgeries as the old liver is removed over two surgeries, so they know the new donor part is working).
Please, please help us to keep John here with his girls. This whole experience has been made so much harder due to covid-19 and not being able to see our friends and family much, We long to have our normal lives back and for this to be a distant memory.
Thank you
#NeverTooYoung #Bowelcancer
John was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer on Father's Day 2020 following emergency surgery for suspected appendicitis. Instead of a burst appendix, the surgeons found a large tunour in his bowel that had caused a perforation. It was removed but unfortunately the cancer had already spread to his liver. He was 35 years old at diagnosis.
He's now had 6 months of the standard 1st line chemotherapy to try to reduce the tumour burden in the liver enough for it to become operable. Sadly following the latest scan, we were told that the cancer had actually grown while he was on the chemo.
The surgeons have said they don't think John's liver will ever be operable. This is obviously devastating and we want to do everything we can to keep him here with us. We have two beautiful little girls, aged just 3 and 1, and we want them to grow up with their doting daddy.
I found out about a clinical trial in Germany that is using live donor liver transplants for bowel cancer patients that have previously been deemed inoperable. This could be John's only chance. He needs to have stability on his next 2 months of chemotherapy and the window will be very narrow. This type of surgery is not currently undertaken in the UK for bowel cancer patients, so the oncologists don't know much about it. But any chance is one worth taking.
There are already several people (myself included) who are desperate to be John's living donor. The surgery itself is very expensive, as it involves 3 surgeries (one to remove part of the liver from the donor, and John would have two surgeries as the old liver is removed over two surgeries, so they know the new donor part is working).
Please, please help us to keep John here with his girls. This whole experience has been made so much harder due to covid-19 and not being able to see our friends and family much, We long to have our normal lives back and for this to be a distant memory.
Thank you
#NeverTooYoung #Bowelcancer
Fundraising team (3)
Lorna Forsyth
Organizer
Joanna Louden
Team member
Ellie Holland
Team member