Help fund John's surgery

Hi there,

A couple of years ago John was diagnosed with something called hyperparathyroidism, which is a debilitative and progressive condition relating to the parathyroid hormone. It's complex and has some nasty symptoms that get worse over time, and can also turn into a secondary condition for 6-8% of sufferers after initial treatment, which unfortunately has happened to John. The only way to treat it is through surgery, which removes the growths that have wrapped around the glands and caused havoc in the body* (more info section below!).

Would you consider helping us raise the funds we need to get him the treatment that could turn his life around and bring him back to health? Any funds raised will go towards the following steps of his treatment

DISCLAIMER: Asking for help in this way is not easy, but some have expressed a willingness to help which has enabled us to move forward with this (thank you, you know who you are!). Any help will be a great blessing to us, but in the end, we want you to know that there is no pressure to do anything more than you already have.

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*More info

The What…

Primary hyperparathyroidism (HPT for short) is caused by an adenoma on one or more parathyroid glands (nothing to do with the thyroid) and the only treatment option is to remove the adenoma surgically.

The symptoms...

It affects people differently, but for John, it includes daily bone and joint pain, fatigue, dizziness, muscle weakness, low mood, personality changes, brain fog, bad sleep and cognitive decline - amongst other symptoms. Over time HPT can lead to osteoporosis as well as chronic heart and kidney conditions, and dementia-like symptoms.

The Why…

John was diagnosed with HPT in Jan 2021 and first had surgery in August of that year. The surgery removed one gland but they refused to check the other glands (known as a four-gland exploratory surgery), and within a few months, the HPT was back. Once again, the only treatment is surgery, to find and remove the other adenomas.

This second surgery is not available in Cornwall through the NHS. Although we have a referral with Oxford University Hospital, there is a long waiting list, and surgery is not guaranteed due to the NHS treatment guidelines for HPT.

The How…

With the HPT getting worse more quickly than we hoped for, we have decided that waiting for the NHS is no longer feasible, and our best option is to get the surgery privately.

The funds...

To honour your donation, any unused funds will be forwarded to an organisation that helps other sufferers of this condition in the UK; we are searching for one at the moment that we can list on this page shortly.

And to provide another level of assurance so you can trust our use of funds, we have a third party (not a family member) who will monitor all fund usage on our behalf. We can't name the person, but he is a great friend and good at holding us to account!

Thank you for getting this far (sorry, hard to keep this short) and thank you for any donation that you can give, every little helps! :)

Thank you