Laura Hydes' Cancer Journey

Sadly Laura has now passed, we are keeping her page open to help with funeral costs. Please see below to read her story:

So this is never something I ever imagined having to write in my life and it just seems so unfair and cruel in so many ways.

My poor sister Laura as many of you know, a wife, a daughter, a sister, an Aunty (lau lau) and friend to so many has been given the utterly devastating news that her cancer has again returned and this time is terminal.

Laura was first diagnosed with stage 1 cancer back in 2014 which shocked us all as she had always attended her smear tests on time, although we were relieved to be told it was cureable. She undertook a tractelectomy at the Royal Marsden where they removed her cervix leaving in a band in its place, where she was hopefully still able to have children and continue her life.

Between then and January 2019 she started having horrific back pain and visited the GP surgery  and health professionals 52 times, yes 52 which is honestly unbelievable, every time she was pointed in a different direction of seeing anyone and everyone but still her cancer was not picked up. She even underwent IVF treatment in the October 2018 and they wrote in her notes ‘large mass seen’ but NOTHING was done about this and she continued with IVF injecting hormones which only fed this tumour growing inside of her.

They finally found it when my sister woke up one day with numb leg which then showed a 10cm tumour in her pelvis that was pressing against her ureter.

Since then she’s had a kidney removed, endless rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and in January this year she was given the choice of either undertake an operation (pelvic exenteration) which would leave her disabled, limiting so much in her life or do nothing and have less than a year left to live. She decided to go for the operation even though she was absolutely terrified. Laura was in Southampton hospital for nearly 3 months, intensive care for weeks and she was slowing rebuilding her life again. Laura was even learning to walk again on a leg she has no feeling in because she is that strong and amazing! 2 months ago the MRI scan she had done was clear - no cancer or that’s what we thought.

A few weeks ago at a family weekend away for a wedding in Gloucester she returned to have swelling and pain, tests were done and we were given the news Friday that now the cancer has returned, now on the opposite side to where it was and that it is incurable. Laura is unable to have more chemo and she unfortunately isn’t going to make it.

Everyone is absolutely heartbroken and I've never felt pain like this. Life is so cruel and so unfair and the thought of not having my big sister and best friend in my life who I have grown up with by my side is horrific. To know there is nothing we can do leaves us so helpless and it is heartbreaking.

We want to try and make as many plans with Laura as possible to make ever lasting memories.

If anyone can donate big or small to help us do this for her we would really appreciate it. Even a weekend away for a trip with the kids and family to just spend time as a family would mean the world.

Laura didn’t deserve this and if they had picked up on this sooner this might not even be the case. Now it’s too late. To be told you are dying at 36 is unimaginable my heart is broken. So any help to make Laura’s time here better is all we want.

Thankyou for reading. ♡

We have set up an instagram page @theadventuresoflaurahydes please follow if you would like to see Laura making lovely memories with her friends and family thanks to your incredible donations! x