Charlie Boy’s Cancer Fundraiser

A warm welcome to the Charlie Boy’s Cancer fundraiser!

Our 19 year old son is currently battling with Stage 4 nodular malignant melanoma (form of skin cancer).

We are desperately trying to raise funds for research & development leading to trials as well as raising awareness of this horrible disease.

Here’s a little bit about Charlie & his backstory….

Charlie is just a regular 19-year-old who plays football and is in his 3rd year apprenticeship in Joinery. Charlie like any other young lad enjoys a bit of banter, going out with his friends & going on holiday with those close to him.

Charlie’s cancer journey started back in summer 2023 when he noticed a mole start to change on his abdomen. Keeping this in the back of his mind Charlie enjoyed his summer.

The mole began to grow therefore Charlie contacted his GP, it was then removed in October. Two weeks later Charlie was told that he had Nodular Malignant Melanoma. As you can imagine this was the worst possible news & massive shock to both Charlie (who was 18 years old at this point) & the family.

This then led to CT scans and further excision around the site where the original mole had been. Then just before Christmas Charlie underwent surgery to have a sentinel lymph node biopsy & PET scan to see if the cancer had spread.

 

At the start of January this year, it was confirmed the cancer had spread to the nearby lymph nodes under his armpit, Charlie was now Stage 3C.  

 

Charlie’s cancer has a mutation known as the BRAF mutation. The BRAF gene is responsible for making a protein that helps regulate growth so a mutation on this gene can cause the cells to grow faster and more aggressively. Research and development has found out that those who are BRAF positive can be treated by targeted therapies in a tablet form. Charlie started taking these tablets in January after finding out he was stage 3. These did come with some side effects for him and he was admitted to hospital as a result of an adverse reaction to his medication which meant his dose had to be reduced however nothing was stopping Charlie, throughout taking these tablets he maintained his day-to-day life, working, celebrated his birthday and obviously continued playing football, he even got coaches player of the year and young player of the year! The plan for the targeted therapy was to take the tablets morning and night for a year as a preventative to stop and cancer spreading however this soon changed.

 

Last week Charlie received a phone call from the hospital asking for a face-to-face appointment to discuss his latest CT scan. Charlie was told that the cancer has now spread to his liver & lungs. We have been advised that Charlie’s cancer is now Stage 4 and the next steps for Charlie is to start immunotherapy. Unfortunately, currently there is no known cure for stage 4 melanoma however Immunotherapy is a step in the right direction. Immunotherapy is a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment that harnesses our own immune system to recognise and fight the cancer cells. The side effects with immunotherapy can be extremely tough but Charlie Boy is driven & determined to get through this & we are too, he can beat this!

 

Charlie can also be considered for upcoming clinical trials if immunotherapy isn’t effective. Trials are very costly, but they are the way forward for finding a cure. There is no amount of money in the world that a mother wouldn’t try to raise, to try to find a cure for their child. 

 

“If I could I would swap places with him, I would in a heartbeat, as a parent I’ve never felt so helpless in my life… the least I can do is start this fundraising page”

 

Once Charlie starts Immunotherapy and get a positive response we will start hosing events and fundraisers to raise awareness about the causes and risks associated with skin cancer and also to try to raise as much money as possible, that we give back to research to find cure for this awful disease. No amount is too small, and every contribution matters in this battle. We are also keen to listen to any ideas people have for fundraising and events or if you would like to host an event then please get in touch.

 

Finally, we want to stress the importance of protecting skin against the sun, even when it’s not glorious sunshine (all the time in Scotland) remember to wear SPF and be sun safe! Whether you have lots of moles or just a few moles, it’s so important to get any changes checked out!