Helping Heather fund her lymphatic bypass surgery

Kirsty Plant is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi, my name is Kirsty and I’m hoping to raise money to help my younger sister fund the treatment she desperately needs for her secondary Lymphedema.

Heather was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2018 at just 31 years of age. She underwent a radical hysterectomy in January 2019, had lymph node biopsies taken and began courses of both chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Thankfully, her treatment was successful and she was on the long road to recovery!

Towards the middle of 2023, Heather started to notice her leg swelling, a little at first but soon it became more noticeable and difficult to conceal. In November 2023 she was diagnosed with secondary lymphedema as a result of the damage done to her lymphatic system during her cancer treatment.

Over the last 12 months it has become significantly worse and is affecting her physically - preventing her from doing normal things - as well as really knocking the stuffing out of her self confidence, which has been hard for me to see after having to watch my little sister fight off cancer like an absolute trooper!

She carries around 1 - 2 litres of extra fluid just in one leg, (her ‘fat leg’ as she calls it) and this is only the start.

Other than monitoring and compression, the NHS are unable to offer her any permanent treatment solution, nor are they able to offer her the lymphatic bypass surgery, which is only available privately at a cost of £18000 in the UK.

Heather is fully prepared to take on the burden of the cost, and her surgery is booked for 24th September this year at the Oxford Lymphoedema Practice, since much beyond this timescale her condition will be too advanced for the surgery to be successful.

She has shouldered enough burdens throughout her cancer journey so far, and if I can raise anything to help ease the financial burden of this a little for her it would be amazing!

She has already begun campaigning to make this treatment available to cancer patients and sufferers like herself in the future here in the UK, no one should suffer when there IS a tried and tested solution out there.

I just want to see my little sister back to being her confident, bubbly self and enjoying the life she took back from cancer with her children and her family ❤️

Thank you for taking the time to read her story