Alison’s fight with terminal brain cancer

UPDATE OCT 23: thank you so much to everyone who has donated. My mum had an MRI in September to see how she has responded to the radiation and chemotherapy, and unfortunately she has not reacted to it and the tumour has grown. She will be starting a new chemotherapy this week to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t then we may only have a matter of months before she starts to seriously deteriorate. We have found a much cheaper alternative immunotherapy treatment in Germany (around £15k) which she is hoping to travel to and have by November, which should help the new chemotherapy work and pass her brain barrier. Once again everyone’s support is so appreciated and we are still hopeful that we can extend her life.

On Christmas Day 2022 my mum went into hospital with burning pins and needles down her left side and slurred speech thinking that she had a stroke. She was sent to a stroke clinic on Boxing Day who then told her that she had shingles and sent her home. Still not convinced my mum paid for a private MRI scan in February 2023 which revealed 3 masses on her brain which looked like cancer. She then went in for a biopsy in April 2023 and on 20th April we got the devastating news that the masses were in fact GBM, and she was diagnosed with Glioblastoma IDH - wildtype grade 4, the deadliest form of brain cancer. The life expectancy for this type of cancer is abysmal and without treatment my mum was given months to live, with the treatment she was given a prognosis of 18 months. Only 25% of patients survive longer than 1 year and only 5% survive more than 5 years. There is currently no cure for this type of cancer and the only treatment that is currently offered on the NHS is chemotherapy and radiotherapy which can prolong life by a few months. What’s shocking about GBM is that there has been no development in treatment offered in over 20 years. This is why we we are currently desperately looking at other privately funded treatments not available on the NHS in the UK and America. One option that we have found is the DCVax which is currently in stage 3 of trials. The cost to have this privately funded is around £250,000, but the results from the trial have seen patients double the survival rates, with 13% still being alive 5 years later compared to the control group. My mum is a fit and healthy 61 year old with 7 children, 2 step children and 9 grandchildren, she is still full of life, hope and positivity and with the right treatment we want to keep her around as long as we can. Anyone who knows my mum knows she is an amazing character and she has so much fight in her, she is determined to see her grandchildren grow up. We are pleading for donations, no matter how big or small, to help fund private treatments. We as her family will also be completing fundraising activities to help raise money.

Thanks for reading