Brooke VS stage 4 Follicular Lymphoma

Hello everyone, THE FIGHT IS ON!!

My name is Shelly and I am organising this GoFundMe on behalf of my beautiful daughter, Brooke.

This beautiful, selfless, independent and doting mother to Scarlett is about to face the toughest fight of her life. Brooke and Jim, had their lives turned upside down when they received the gut wrenching news that Brooke had stage 4 cancer.

To be completely honest with you all, this is my 6th attempt trying to do this. I (mum) have been sitting here for hours on end and nothing I seem to write seems like the right thing to say, so I’m just going to do it my way and hope that I can help my beautiful Brooke in whatever way I can.

So, where do I begin? For those that don't know, this will be shocking and will undoubtly make you numb, as it did to me and everyone that loves Brooke. She isn't my Brooke, she is everyone's, because everybody that meets her loves her unconditionally.

Brooke has a 20 month old daughter, Scarlett (literally a miracle baby) and earlier this year she decided it was time for her to go back to work. With Scarlett being at child care (mums you get it) everybody started becoming unwell; thats apart of kids going to daycare, but Brooke kept getting sick and there seemed to be no ending of the illnesses or symptoms. From cold/flu, to ear infections and pluracy (inflammation of the lungs and chest cavity), poor Brooke could not catch a break. Brooke went to see her GP (who is phenomenal) about her wrist as it had been sore and she previously had tendonitis. She also mentioned some rather unusual lumps and swollen glands that she wanted the Dr to check for her. She had mentioned to the Dr that these lumps presented roughly three years ago but a different GP dismissed it and said that it was nothing to worry about. The GP immediately flagged Brooke as urgent and requested tests ASAP.

The next thing we know is that Brooke received a text message from the clinic stating " Please bring a support person with you for results" from that, we knew it wasn't good. Brooke had an extremely high WBC count, but Brooke didn't think anything of it as she had an ear infection the week prior and thought that maybe it was elevated because of that. The Dr proceeded to discuss the results and told her that she had lymphoma but they needed to do more tests to see which kind. Here is where the biopsy, PET scan, CT scan and other investigations started.

GRADE 1 / Stage 3 follicular lymphoma- OUR HEARTS SUNK!

The cancer has spread to both sides of her diaphram, the top and bottom of her body and her spleen is also massively affected. Brooke has most likely had this for years due to the size and severity of it.

As a mother, I wasn't aware of Brooke's struggles. She kept to herself a whole lot of the time as a new mum but she just couldn't understand why she was always so lethargic and tired. "Every single day i'm so tired mum. My joints, bones and body just hurts. It really hurts mum, I don't know why. I'm exhausted". Brooke has always been hyper independent and states that she never complained much because she felt like a 'hypochondriac'. Our poor girl was in debilitating pain but suffered in silence because she didn't want to be a nuisance. She knew something was wrong with her, her gut told her and praise the lord she went and got checked.

Brooke is now with Peter Mac where all of the stress and tests multiply and start again. During this time spent at Peter Mac where the tests were more in-depth, they discovered that the cancer was also in her bone marrow and this now made her cancer stage 4. This amazing young mother is still trying to be so positive and tries her absolute best to be happy, loving and as much fun for her little girl as possible. She also worries for her Jim, who is hurting just as much as Brooke. All of this is just too much for anybody to comprehend and absorb.

Brooke had the unexpected question asked "Do you want to freeze your eggs?" Brooke has now accepted she will only be a mother to Scarlett and wont ever have the opportunity to have more babies. Financially and mentally, it just wasn't an option. After endless conversations, doubts and what if's, the decision had to be made ASAP, which for anyone is not an easy decision, let alone with a timeframe lingering over your head.

The oncologist gave Brooke news that due to the size of the lumps, she qualified for a clinical trial at Peter Mac, which specifically targets follicular lymphoma. Brooke's fear of losing her hair was getting the better of her but this treatment may enable Brooke to keep her hair so she said yes, it really was a no brainer.

Due to this type of cancer being incurable, Brooke wants to help with research in whatever way she can (thats her being selfless once again), so if she can help others going through what she currently is, then she's in! For research purposes, Brooke has allowed them to take double the amount of what is required for testing, so they can use the other half for researching purposes. This includes biopsy, bloods and bone marrow.

All testing had to be done again but within a short 28 day window before treatment started. On the 5th of May Brooke broke out in self induced hives due to the severe stress and it would not go away.

Brooke had her bags packed and was mentally prepared to start this clinical trial treatment but once again, another bomb dropped on us. Brooke then got the results back that she needed to be able to start her treatment, but it unfortunately wasn't as we had hoped for. The oncologist proceeded to say that upon review of the scans, he noticed her mirena coils had migrated into her abdomen and will need surgery to remove them prior to beginning treatment. So our darling girls' treatment has been put on hold while we wait for a date to have surgery, and in the process, she has been to one appointment at The Royal Women’s in Melbourne, which was flagged as urgent to resolve this issue via surgery. She then needs to go back through Peter Mac once she has recovered from surgery to redo the 28 day testing again which will enable her to start the clinical trial treatment.. the poor girl takes one step forward and three steps back. Unfortunately the bills don't end and we are stuck with what to do.

I am asking from the bottom of my heart for your help, in any way possible.

This isn't just for Brooke, it's for their beautiful family. This will help to ease the burden of financial stress thats now been put onto them. It's also for their beautiful ray of sunshine, Scarlett, that deserves what every child deserves.

THERE IS NO CURE & THERE IS NO PROGNOSIS

If all that love her can make her journey and treatment that little bit easier and take a financial burden of stress off their shoulders; THEN LETS DO IT, PLEASE!

Brooke's dream of owning her own family home seems further and further out of reach due to the sudden influx of added expenses.. no money is coming in, but bills keep flowing through.

Brooke will have 4 hourly round trips for treatment as she lives in Bendigo. This young family will also need help with treatment costs, fuel, accommodation, child care, loss of wages, and hopefully a little bit of R+R between treatments and life in general.

Brooke is very stressed and has cried to me that she doesn't want this to interfere with her everyday/normal life for her daughter, Scarlett. They will try their very best to be as 'normal' as possible, and not go without, as no child should have to.

We all love you Brooke, so very much.

We promise to stand by and support you through this journey.

Through my own research, I have found a clinic in the US that specialises in this type of follicular lymphoma cancer treatment and the success rate gives me great hope for Brooke. If enough money was raised, I would love to get my daughter over to the US and see the oncologists within that clinic to discuss treatment options for my girl. Anything is worth a try and my girl is worth everything.

Thank you to each and every one of you that took the time to read this and to be so generous and donate. We will keep updating this as we have more information, but any changes will be updated when we are aware.

Shelly.