Help Jim fund cancer treatment to extend his life

Nicky Barrow is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi all, thank you for taking the time to read our story.

My name is Nicky, wife to my lovely husband Jim.

Life was pretty great, happily married for 6 years with our two children Archie now 8 and Izzy now 4. We had lots of exciting plans for the future, Jim was preparing to take over the business he had worked for for over 20 years, and we were planning an exciting home renovation, we had lots to look forward to…

Things took a drastic turn in May 2022 when Jim was diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 bowel cancer that had spread to his liver. I knew cancer was a cruel disease but never in a million years did I expect it to turn our worlds up side down in the way it has!

Jim began gruelling chemotherapy shortly after diagnosis leaving him bedridden for days on end, however he had an excellent response to treatment and things were looking positive.

Things took a turn for the worst at the end of last year when it was discovered after 3 failed trips to A&E that Jim had a major bowel obstruction caused by the tumour and he needed urgent surgery leaving him with a stoma. He took this in his stride as he knew this journey wasnt going to be straightforward and continued fighting.

After recovering from this op he went on to undergo more chemo, an intense course of radiotherapy and caught Covid twice! Unfortunately Jim did not have such a good response to the chemo and the cancer started to progress.

If the side effects of chemo and radiotherapy wasn’t enough to contend with the tumour was also pushing on nerves causing unbearable pain in his back and rectum. He spent 2 weeks in St Helena hospice in July for pain management and after many hurdles managed to come home and continue with chemo.

However Jim’s pain returned with a vengeance along with a high temperature which saw him back in hospital. It was discovered Jim’s tumour had perforated causing a large abscess in his bowel and was the cause of ongoing infections. This was managed for 7 weeks between hospital and hospice and eventually after much conflicting information, finally it was drained. Wow what a relief, maybe now Jim could get some quality of life back and we could enjoy some much needed family time.

If only it was this simple…Jim’s pain continues to be off the scale and the cancer continues to progress!!

Jim has now moved on to third line treatment Lonsurf which is an oral chemotherapy. After much research I have discovered another drug Bevacizumab, also known as Avastin that studies show strong evidence to suggest it works effectively alongside Lonsurf and has shown to extend overall survival compared to Lonsurf alone.

Unfortunately this drug is not available on the NHS and has to be self funded privately.

This is an opportunity we CANNOT turn down, after the battle Jim has been through he deserves the chance to stabilise the cancer in the hope it will improve his quality of life.

We don’t want fancy holidays or expensive trips, we just want Jim to have the opportunity to enjoy everyday life, watching tv with the kids, going for a drink in the pub, watching Archie play football and Izzy do gymnastics. Maybe even get him back on the dance floor! At the moment this has been taken away from us by the pain he is in!

This drug is extremely expensive to fund. We are looking at over £1000 per treatment which is given every two weeks plus additional fees for follow up consultations. For 12 months of treatment we are looking at around £25,000!

Just to add into the mix, Jim was made redundant after diagnosis so as you can imagine we are not in a position to fund this alone.

Asking for help is not something that comes easily to either of us and we have thought long and hard about whether to set this page up. However, without additional support we wont be able to fund this treatment.

Jim, nor I are ready to give up, he has two young children that need him here for as long as possible, as well as the rest of his family and friends!

I know so many people have offered to help us throughout this journey which we are eternally grateful for. This could be a way of doing just that, any donation you can afford would be greatly appreciated.