I need to talk to you about Annie.......

I would like to take a moment of your time to talk to you about my wife Annie.

Annie’s not like your normal lady (well not to me anyway).

She’s different, very different in fact. Now I know the words soul mate are often used and if you are lucky enough to have actually met your once in a life time ,one in a million partner then you will know what I’m talking about. She’s THAT kind of special.

The kind of special that lights up a room. The kind of special that makes life fun, interesting, full of colour , music, dancing , laughter and most of all love. The kind of love that with one squeeze or kiss can take away any troubles and makes you feel totally contented with life. She’s my Soul mate in the true meaning of the words.

Annie is an outstanding mother to our extended family of 6 children. 5 boys ( Harry, Arthur, Fred, Finn ,Huey ) and 1 girl ( Bo who’s the youngest ).

They all adore her as much as she does them.

We also have our hands full with our lovely 3 black Labradors (Daisy, Betty and Bear).

Annie has many passions in her life . She loves anything old that has character. Particularly Hawaiian vintage clothing .But there’s one that she’s very passionate about and talented at and that’s music.

She has her own roots R&B band called Miss Annie & The Midnight Shift.

Hopefully you’re lucky enough to know them or have heard them play. They really are very good and keep the dance floors swinging.

She also sings in a trio called The Fifanellas . Singing with her 2 life long best friends.

Music has always been a such a very important part of her/our lives.

Sadly back in February Annie was diagnosed with stage 4 bowl cancer. As you can imagine this was devastating news .

Since then Annie has fought this terrible disease as hard as she can.

Unfortunately she’s had some set backs . She’s had two different rounds of chemotherapy and neither have worked. In fact they said she’s one of the rare cases where it’s actually made it worse.

We received the terrible news that the cancer has spread from the bowel to the lymph nodes, liver, adrenal gland and behind the heart.

So the NHS tried a TACE procedure on the liver but again without success.

Early November the heart wrenching decision was made to stop all treatment as nothing was working and the chemotherapy was taking its toll on Annie’s quality of life. After fighting so hard she needed a rest.

This was the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make.

We were given the news that it was most likely that Annie wouldn’t make Christmas this year.

So we bought our Christmas forward and gathered all the children. It was a wonderfully joyous occasion.

Annie has never stopped being positive even after this terrible news. In fact she’s actually coping well. She’s never lost her glowing smile.

We have since received an encouraging call from a professor at Southampton hospital. He wanted us to know that there are two drugs that he thinks Annie could really benefit from. As they have shown promising results for people in Annie’s situation.

This has given us a really positive boost and the encouragement to fight on.

The drugs are called Avastin and Lonsurf.

But the down side is that Avastin isn’t available on the NHS ( unless you live in Wales ) . So it would have to be paid for privately .

The second drug Lonsurf is available on the NHS but NOT if taken in conjunction with Avastin. Annie needs both so we will have to fund them ourselves.

This is £5780 per month for both.

It has been suggested to us to try Go Fund Me as there are lots of people who would love to help in situations like this.

So here we are.

If you can help by making a donation it would mean more than you could ever know. But even if your not in a position to make a donation and you could help by sharing Annie’s story and putting it out to as many people as possible. That also would be greatly appreciated.

Annie really is the most wonderful person you could ever hope to meet.

So from Annie , the children, the dogs and myself I offer you a heart felt thank you.

Any help is greatly appreciated .

Thank you